TCP/IP Sockets in C: Practical Guide for Programmers

This book includes enough easy to read explanations of actual working code that you can within a few hours have a client/server socket connection up and working. Both the text and the code are well written and easy to follow. Advanced information about non-blocking I/O allowed me to quickly implement background socket reads without tying up a foreground process. The annoying occurrences of "address already in use" errors is explained clearly, and how to get around them by the use of socket options. I had literally zero problems compiling and executing the examples with the gcc compiler and Ubuntu Linux. As the title says, it's a book for C programmers about sockets, not for other languages. There is a chapter on C++ use, which I have not needed yet.

This is a great book if you are looking for a decent introduction to the Sockets API or just a quick reference. Prior knowledge of C programming and networking concepts is required. It is very easy to read, and not overwhelming like the Stevens book. It covers TCP and UDP sockets as well as name resolution. Money well spent.

This book was recommended to me for one of my courses and I was very skeptical seeing the size. But after reading the book, I was extremely impressed. If you are just into network programming, then this book teaches most of the basics needed to advance more deeply. The explanations are very good and all the code written in the book work :) If you are already familiar with the basics of TCP / IP, then you can finish this book in about a day or two.I highly recommend this book for every network programming beginner. Please Note: This book is not a guide to C programming and you should be familiar with basic C data structures and pointers for understanding some of the code logic.

This book is awesome. I've been writing tcp/ip sockets code for years and I've used all the standard reference books (Esp. the Stevens books) and they're great. Let me tell you, though, that I wish I had this book when I got started with TCP/IP programming. It's clear, it goes into sufficient detail to get you to understand what's going on, but not so much that you get lost.I read in two pages of this book something that none of the other books showed, the 'pre-forking' server model which things like Apache use. None of my other books explain how this works, this does, clearly and concisely. Even though I own all the standards (TCP/IP Illustrated volumes 1, 2 and 3, and both editions of Unix Network Programming by Stevens) when I got a chance to thumb through this book (and it's sister book "TCP/IP sockets in java") I knew immediately I would be buying them.Excellent. Just Excellent.

I am taking my first networking course and the professor recommanded this book for its simplest guide to TCP/IP socket programming.It is good because it gets beginners who are first in networking field (just like me) to be familiar with the basics in writing applications with TCP/IP sockets. However, you still have to have some essential knowledge of "C", such like pointers and struct used a lot in the sockets.It is just a introduction to socket programming, but enough for you to have a glance at it. If you want a complete reference, or you have already had experience in socket programming, this book may not suit for you. After all, it is for novice. I recommanded Stevens's "UNIX Network Programming" if you want a further study. I dare to say it is the bible book in network programming.