Winsock Application Development

A socket enables network applications access to data on a data network. A computing device may have only one physical connection to a network, but many sockets can use the one physical connection simultaneously.

Winsock client and server applications provide endpoints of communication for network applications. A server application executes, then it waits to receive a packet from the client application. Once communication is established, client and server applications can exchange data. A server application can handle multiple clients simultaneously.

**Note   **Winsock client and server applications must be of the same socket type to communicate. For example, they must both be using byte stream sockets that use TCP, or they must both be using unreliable datagram sockets that use UDP.

See Also

Using WSAStartup to Initialize Winsock | Stream Socket Application | Creating an Infrared Winsock Application | Creating a UDP Datagram Socket Application | Creating an IP Multicast Application | Determining if a Network Connection is Present

 Last updated on Saturday, April 10, 2004

© 1992-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.