Overview of the Windows Socket Classes

The Sockets layer provides network access for application programs, as shown below.

The Windows Socket classes support the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the User Datagram Protocol (UDP).

• The TCP protocol is used for stream socket communication.
• The UDP protocol is used for datagram socket communication.

The TCP and UDP layers support the Internet Protocol (IP) layer.

Blocking and Non-Blocking Sockets

A socket can be set to the blocking or non-blocking mode.

See Also

The Windows Socket Classes The Windows Socket Classes