Is there any good book about networks and network protocols? One question I currently have is: How does the operating system determine the IP address of the router in a LAN?
I want to understand those basics. I know that I can look up most of the common protocols by searching for their respective RFC, but I don't even know which protocols are used for which purpose.
The operating system knows the ip address of the first router (default gateway), because someone told it - either manually when configuring the TCP/IP settings or dynamically via DHCP, BOOTP or similar.
There are plenty of good book suggestions in the closed question "What are good books on computer networks"