Book Image

Hands-On Network Programming with C

By : Lewis Van Winkle
Book Image

Hands-On Network Programming with C

By: Lewis Van Winkle

Overview of this book

Network programming enables processes to communicate with each other over a computer network, but it is a complex task that requires programming with multiple libraries and protocols. With its support for third-party libraries and structured documentation, C is an ideal language to write network programs. Complete with step-by-step explanations of essential concepts and practical examples, this C network programming book begins with the fundamentals of Internet Protocol, TCP, and UDP. You’ll explore client-server and peer-to-peer models for information sharing and connectivity with remote computers. The book will also cover HTTP and HTTPS for communicating between your browser and website, and delve into hostname resolution with DNS, which is crucial to the functioning of the modern web. As you advance, you’ll gain insights into asynchronous socket programming and streams, and explore debugging and error handling. Finally, you’ll study network monitoring and implement security best practices. By the end of this book, you’ll have experience of working with client-server applications and be able to implement new network programs in C. The code in this book is compatible with the older C99 version as well as the latest C18 and C++17 standards. You’ll work with robust, reliable, and secure code that is portable across operating systems, including Winsock sockets for Windows and POSIX sockets for Linux and macOS.
Table of Contents (26 chapters)
Title Page
Dedication
About Packt
Contributors
Preface
Index

Summary


We covered a lot of ground in this chapter. First, we reviewed error-handling methods, and then we implemented a function to obtain text descriptions for error codes.

We then jumped right into the hard details of TCP sockets. We saw how TCP sockets hide much complexity, and how it is sometimes necessary to understand that hidden state to get good application performance. We saw a method for an early timeout on a TCP connect() call, and we looked at how to terminate a connection with an orderly release.

We then took a closer look at the bind() function and how its usefulness differs between servers and clients. Finally, we discussed how the select() function limits the total number of sockets your program can handle, and how to work around it.

So far, this book has been focused mainly on network code as it would pertain to personal computers and servers. In the next chapter, Chapter 14Web Programming for the Internet of Things, we move our focus to the extending of internet access...