Java™ Network Programming and Distributed Computing

6.8. Exception Handling: Socket-Specific Exceptions

As a medium for communication, networks are fraught with problems. With so many machines connected to the global Internet, the prospect of encountering a host whose hostname cannot be resolved, one that is disconnected from the network, or one that locks up during a connection, is very likely in the lifetime of a software application. It is important, therefore, to be aware of the conditions that might cause such problems to arise in an application and to deal with them gracefully. Of course, not every application will require precise control, and in simple applications you'll probably want to handle everything with a generic handler. For those more advanced applications, however, it is important ...