1.1 Introduction

This book will help you develop network applications with .NET, using either the C# (pronounced C-sharp) or VB.NET programming language. It is broken up into three distinct sections: networking basics, distributed application design, and specialized networking topics.

The first six chapters of the book cover the established Internet technologies, such as email and the World Wide Web. Leveraging established technologies such as these gives the general public greater access to your software service because most users will already have a Web browser or email client on their computers.

The next five chapters discuss network application design. This includes application security, performance, and scalability. Contained within these chapters is practical, hands-on advice to help improve the overall quality of your software. With tougher security, your applications will be less susceptible to theft of intellectual property and privileged information. The performance and scalability improvements described in this section will ensure that your application remains responsive even under the most extreme loads.

The specialized networking topics section provides a wealth of information about both niche and cutting-edge Internet technologies. These include chapters on telephony, packet capture, message queues, IPv6, and Microsoft's latest offerings in the field of distributed application development: Web services and remoting.

1.2 Why Network Programming in .NET?

One of the first technical decisions to be made whenever a new project is undertaken is what language to use. .NET is a capable platform on which to develop almost any solution, and it offers substantial support for network programming. In...