In this chapter, we will learn how to deal with network-related functionality from the native C/C++ code. Networking tasks are asynchronous by nature and unpredictable in terms of timing. Even when the underlying connection is established using the TCP protocol, there is no guarantee on the delivery time, and nothing prevents the applications from freezing while waiting for the data. In the Android SDK, this is hidden from a developer by a myriad of classes and facilities. In Android NDK, au contraire, one has the responsibility to overcome these difficulties without assistance from any platform-specific helpers. To develop responsive and safe applications, a number of problems must be solved: we need to be in full control of the download process, we have to limit the downloaded data size, and gracefully handle the errors that occur. Without delving into the details of the HTTP and SSL protocols implementation, we will use the libcurl and OpenSSL libraries, and concentrate...