Handshake

A handshake is a short ritual in which two people grasp one of each other's like hands, in most cases accompanied by a brief up and down movement of the grasped hands.

Using the right hand is generally considered proper etiquette. Customs surrounding handshakes are specific to cultures. Different cultures may be more or less likely to shake hands, or there may be different customs about how or when to shake hands. Handshakes are known to spread germs.

History

Archaeological ruins and ancient texts show that handshaking was practiced in ancient Greece as far back as the 5th century BC; a depiction of two soldiers shaking hands can be found on part of a 5th-century BC funerary stele on display in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin (stele SK1708) and other funerary steles like the one of the 4th century BC which depicts Thraseas and his wife Euandria handshaking (see images on the right). The handshake is thought by some to have originated as a gesture of peace by demonstrating that the hand holds no weapon.

Handshaking

In information technology, telecommunications, and related fields, handshaking is an automated process of negotiation that dynamically sets parameters of a communications channel established between two entities before normal communication over the channel begins. It follows the physical establishment of the channel and precedes normal information transfer.

The handshaking process usually takes place in order to establish rules for communication when a computer sets about communicating with a foreign device . When a computer communicates with another device like a modem, printer, or network server, it needs to handshake with it to establish a connection.

Handshaking can negotiate parameters that are acceptable to equipment and systems at both ends of the communication channel, including, but not limited to, information transfer rate, coding alphabet, parity, interrupt procedure, and other protocol or hardware features. Handshaking is a technique of communication between two entities. However, within TCP/IP RFCs, the term "handshake" is most commonly used to reference the TCP three-way handshake. For example, the term "handshake" is not present in RFCs covering FTP or SMTP. One exception is Transport Layer Security, TLS, setup, FTP RFC 4217. In place of the term "handshake", FTP RFC 3659 substitutes the term "conversation" for the passing of commands.