SIMPOL Documentation

Chapter 16. Client Applications Using TCP/IP

Introduction

The best place to begin when learning about the tcpsocket type is building a simple client program. In this chapter we will examine the code that is used for a basic URL dumping program. It makes a connection to a web server and requests a resource using the GET method of the HTTP protocol. For details of how to program HTTP-compliant applications, the reader is directed to the various RFC's that are associated with this protocol (starting with RFC1945).

[Tip]Tip

One of the more useful tools when building any type of TCP/IP-based service is the program telnet. Telnet provides a console with which the user can examine what is going on when a server connection is made and then can test the interaction with the server. Regardless of whether the objective is to build a server or a client, it is always useful to have a console available with which to test the interaction of the target components.