[quote]The UDP protocol provides for communication that is not guaranteed between two applications on the network. UDP is not connection-based like TCP. Rather, it sends independent packets of data from one application to another. Sending datagrams is much like sending a letter through the mail service: The order of delivery is not important and is not guaranteed, and each message is independent of any others. [/quote]

Also, like the postal service, UDP tends to lose packets or send them to the void. I think their analogy is very apt :)

While explaining the differences between TCP and UDP to a friend a year or so ago I came up with this analogy: TCP is like a telephone (connection, stream, reliable), UDP is like a walkie-talkie (connectionless, datagram, unreliable).

The guy I explained it to later asked the same question in a job interview, used my analogy to explain it and got the job.

[quote author=Yoni link=board=4;threadid=6289;start=0#msg55056 date=1081954610]
While explaining the differences between TCP and UDP to a friend a year or so ago I came up with this analogy: TCP is like a telephone (connection, stream, reliable), UDP is like a walkie-talkie (connectionless, datagram, unreliable).

The guy I explained it to later asked the same question in a job interview, used my analogy to explain it and got the job.
[/quote]

haha, nice. If I'm ever asked, I'm honestly going to give the postal service analogy. "unreliable, gets lost, etc"