Visual Studio® 2010 All-in-One For Dummies®

Chapter 9. Writing Network Applications

In This Chapter

• Using sockets for network communications

• Creating an application to access content on the Web

• Creating a simple chat application

Since the mid-1990s, the Internet and the World Wide Web have become ubiquitous. The increased bandwidth capabilities allow for vast amounts of information to travel around the world in lightning-fast speeds. E-mail, pictures, documents, bank and market transactions, and even movies and television programs are transported from one place to another on the Internet. Now, more than ever, the world has become smaller and more connected.

Very few applications written today don't involve some sort of network connectivity. From applications that automatically download updates from the vendor's Web site or display the latest news headlines from organizations around the word, the ability to add networking capabilities to your applications is a must for nearly all software developers.

To help you build networked applications, the .NET framework offers libraries that help you network your applications with ease. The System.Net namespace contains all the classes you need to add any kind of networking to your application.

You can find the C# and VB examples for this chapter at www.dummies.com/go/vs2010.

Creating an Application to Access Content on the Web

Perhaps one of the most common types of network applications is one that accesses content on the Web using the Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP). HTTP is the means ...