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About Servers and Clients

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There are two distinct types of socket network applications: Server and Client.

Servers and Clients have different behaviors; therefore, the process of creating them is different. What follows is the general model for creating a streaming TCP/IP Server and Client.

Server

  1. Initialize Winsock.
  2. Create a socket.
  3. Bind the socket.
  4. Listen on the socket for a client.
  5. Accept a connection from a client.
  6. Receive and send data.
  7. Disconnect.

Client

  1. Initialize Winsock.
  2. Create a socket.
  3. Connect to the server.
  4. Send and receive data.
  5. Disconnect.

Note

Some of the steps are the same for a client and a server. These steps are implemented almost exactly alike. Some of the steps in this guide will be specific to the type of application being created.

 

First Step: Creating a Basic Winsock Application

Getting Started With Winsock