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

Firmware updates


IoT devices are connected to the internet, and this gives us an advantage for product updates. When new functionality or bug fixes are developed, we can use the internet to push updates to our IoT devices.

This process is easy when using an SBC. You just push the update as you would for any software.

If your product uses a microcontroller or FPGA, then things get a bit more complicated. Your device will need to download a firmware image, and then transfer that into non-volatile memory as required.

If the device's power is interrupted during the firmware update phase, the device could be left in an unusable state. This can be prevented through careful design. If the device has enough memory to store the firmware twice, it is possible to download the entire firmware update without overwriting the original. In this case, the device can detect the failed update (by using a checksum, watchdog timer, or someother mechanism) and revert to the previous state.

In any case, there are...