This book helps newcomers get started with a look at the basics of network programming as they relate to C#, including the language's network classes, the Winsock interface, and DNS resolution. Spend as much time here as you need, then dig into the core topics of the network layer. You'll learn to make sockets connections via TCP and "connectionless" connections via UDP. You'll also discover just how much help C# gives you with some of your toughest chores, such as asynchronous socket programming, multithreading, and multicasting.

Network-layer techniques are just a means to an end, of course, and so this book keeps going, providing a series of detailed application-layer programming examples that show you how to work with real protocols and real network environments to build and implement a variety of applications. Use SNMP to manage network devices, SMTP to communicate with remote mail servers, and HTTP to Web-enable your applications. And use classes native to C# to query and modify Active Directory entries.

Rounding it all out is plenty of advanced coverage to push your C# network programming skills to the limit. For example, you'll learn two ways to share application methods across the network: using Web services and remoting. You'll also master the security features intrinsic to C# and .NET--features that stand to benefit all of your programming projects.