Description:
The explosive growth of the Internet in no small part is due to the sockets programming interface. This elegant API allows almost any computer that runs TCP/IP--from palm computers to mainframes--to communicate seamlessly. The Pocket Guide to TCP/IP Sockets provides beginning and intermediate network programmers with a practical tutorial and reference guide. Instead of trying to break new ground, this book establishes modest goals and achieves them splendidly. It is a concise, high-quality resource for students and professionals. This book targets the accomplished C programmer who wants to learn network programming. You're assumed to have a good working knowledge of basic IP addressing and network configuration--not much time is spent educating you on the fundamentals of networking architecture. A highlight of this book is the solid sample code. Even for those who already write socket code, a brief refresher is always helpful--this book delivers valuable client and server code for both TCP and UDP sockets. Although the samples are based on a Unix environment, it's a trivial matter to port most of the code to Microsoft Windows and the Windows Sockets interface (ported samples also are available directly from the book's Web site). No longer do you have to paw through a thick reference to find parameter lists for sendto() or accept(). More subtle issues--data alignment, network vs. host byte order, and differing approaches to handling client connections--also are handled with ease. Chapter 6 contains an under-the-hood discussion on TCP/IP implementation that will be useful to the more advanced user and that explains possible deadlock conditions, discusses the TCP state diagram, and sheds light on how the operating system handles socket resources. These juicy nuggets are reasons enough to keep this book handy--even after the thrill of your first successful network program subsides. --Pete Ostenson
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