In the previous chapter, we concluded the review of database support by looking at RESTful access. While this can be applicable to data stored in a local environment, it is more often associated with data held on servers accessed over an Internet or Intranet connection.

In this chapter, we will develop methods of working with network connections further, starting with the basic IP sockets and then looking at services that are more commonly associated with the World Wide Web (WWW).

Following this, we will consider the use of messaging services, such as e-mail and Twitter, and conclude with a brief discussion of cloud service such as those offered by Amazon and Google.