Winsock Networking Tutorial (C++)

Winsock Networking Tutorial (C++)
© 2010 by Thomas Bleeker (MadWizard)
Networking introduction
First I will give you an introduction to basic networking principles and terms. Anyone with internet
acc ess will have some knowledge about networks, servers, c lients, but to ensure you know enough
to program with it I've inc luded this chapter. You won't need all the details mentioned here when
programming winsock, but it's good to know something about the underlying techniques.
1. Ne tworks and protocols
You probably already know what a network is, it's a c ollec tion of computers c onnected to each
other so they c an exc hange data. There are several types of networks, suc h as LANs (Loc al Area
Network), WANs (Wide Area Network) and of c ourse the internet. To ensure that all traffic is going
smoothly, networks rely on protocols:
Protocol
A protocol is a set of rules describing the format in which data is transmitted
over a network.
As stated in the information box above, a protocol desc ribes how to c ommunic ate over a network.
It c an be c ompared with a human language: at the lowest level nearly everyone c an make and
hear sounds (compare: elec tronic signals) but people won't understand eac h other unless they
speak a ac c ording to a specific language they both understand (c ompare: protocol).
2. Ethe rne t
Networks rely on several protocol layers, eac h one having its own task in the communic ation
proc ess. A very c ommonly used configuration is the ethernet LAN with TCP/IP. In ethernet LANs,
c omputers c an be connec ted using c oaxial, twisted pair (UTP) or optic fiber c ables. Nowadays, for
most networks, UTP c ables are used. WANs and the internet (partly a combination of many WANs)
use many of the tec hniques used in ethernet LANs, so I will disc uss ethernet LAN technology first.
MAC
The lowest layer of ethernet is the hardware level, c alled the Media Access Layer, or MAC for
short. This layer can be a network c ard, for example, whic h contains the serial network interface
and c ontroller that take care of c onverting the raw data into electronic signals and sending it to
the right plac e.
Pac kage that are sent over a network of c ourse need to reac h their destination. So there has to
be some kind of addressing. Various levels of the ethernet interfac e have different addressing
methods, as you will see later. At the lowest MAC level, addressing is done with MAC numbers.
MAC number
48-bit identifier that is hardcoded into each network interface unit. The
allocation of these numbers is done by the IEEE Registration Authority so each
ethernet chip has a world wide unique number (that is, if the manufacturer
didn't mess up :). MAC numbers are often noted as colon-separated hex
numbers: 14:74:A0:17:95:D7.
To send a pac ket to another network interfac e, the pac ket needs to inc lude its MAC number. LANs
use a very simple method to send the packets to the right interfac e: broadcasting. This means
that your network card just shouts the pac kage to every other interfac e it c an reac h. Eac h
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Networking introduction - MadWizard.org
rec eiving interface looks at the destination MAC number of the packet, and only buffers it if
matc hes its own MAC number. While this method is easy to implement and quite effec tive on LANs,
bigger networks (WANs, internet) don't use this method for obvious reasons; you wouldn't want
everyone on the internet to send pac kets to everyone else on the internet. WANs use better
routing mec hanisms, which I won't discuss here. Just remember that at the lowest level, addressing
is done with MAC numbers. Ethernet pac kets also inc lude a CRC and error detection.
IP
Just above the hardware level is the IP level. IP simply stands for Internet Protocol. Just like the
MAC layer, IP too has its own way of addressing:
IP number
The numbers used to address at the IP level of the network interface. IPv4,
the version most widely used uses 32-bit values, noted in the well known
dotted format: 209.217.52.4. Unlike MAC numbers, IP numbers are not
hardcoded into the hardware, they are assigned to it at software level.
IP numbers shouldn't be something strange to you. The internet uses them to uniquely identify a
specific computer. IP addresses can be assigned to a network interfac e using software. Doing this
assoc iates the IP number with the MAC address of the network interfac e. To address using IP
numbers, the associated MAC number needs to be resolved. This is done with the ARP (Address
Resolution Protocol). Eac h host maintains a list with pairs of IP and MAC numbers. If an IP is used
without a matc hing MAC number, the host sends out a query pac ket to the rest of the LAN. If any
of the other computers in the LAN rec ognize their IP number, it sends bac k the c orresponding MAC
number. If no matching MAC number c an be found the pac ket is sent to the gateway, a c omputer
that forwards pac kages to external networks. The IP to MAC c onversion is ac tually done at the
data link layer (MAC layer)
The IP protocol adds the sourc e and destination address (IP numbers) to the pac ket, as well as
some other pac kage properties suc h as the TTL hops (time to live hops), the protocol version
used, header c hecksum, sequence c ount and some more fields. They are not important to us so I
won't explain them in detail.
TCP
The next layer is the TCP layer (or alternatively, the UDP layer). This layer is very c lose to the
network applic ation and deals with many things. As final addition to the addressing, TCP adds a
port number to the package:
Port number
While IP numbers are used to address a specific computer or network device,
port numbers are used to identify which process running on that device should
receive the package. Port numbers are 16-bit, and thus limited to 65536
numbers. A process can register to receive packets sent to a specific port
number ('listening'). A notation often used when addressing a port number on
a device is 'IP:portnumber', eg. 209.217.52.4:80. Both sides of a connection
use a port number, but not necessarily the same.
Many port numbers are WKP (Well Known Ports), that is they are c ommonly associated with a
specific service. For example, the WWW uses port 80 by default, FTP uses port 21, e-mail uses 25
(SMTP) and 110 (POP). Although these are the ports usually used for those servic es, nobody

prevents you from using different ports. However, it's a good practic e to use port numbers higher
than 1024 for other, c ustom servic es.
While the IP layer doesn't c are about the succ ess of transmissions, TCP does. The TCP layer
ensures data does arrive, and c orrectly. It also lets the receiver c ontrol the data flow, ie. the
rec eiver can dec ide when to rec eive data. If a package is lost during the way to its destination,
TCP resends the pac kage. TCP also reorders the pac kages if they arrive in an order different from
the original order. This makes the programmer's life easy as it c an safely assume the data that is
sent is rec eived and in the right order. UDP, an alternative for TCP, does not have these features
and cannot guarantee the arrival of pac kages. TCP is c onnection-oriented, and the best c hoic e for
c ontinuous data streams. UDP on the other hand is c onnectionless, and packet oriented. I won't
deal with UDP in this tutorial.
Software
Finally, above the TCP layer is the network software. In windows, your applic ation does not
direc tly acc ess the TCP layer but uses the WinSock API. The software layer provides a very
c onvenient way of dealing with networking. Thanks to all the underlying layers, you don't need to
worry about packets, pac ket size, data corruption, resending of lost pac kets etc.
3. T he e the rne t inte rface stack
The image above shows the encapsulation of the eac h protoc ol in the ethernet interfac e stack. It
all starts with the software layer, whic h has a piec e of data that it wants to send over the
network. Even this data usually has a format (eg. HTTP, FTP protocols), although not shown in the
image. The user data first gets a TCP header inc luding the source and destination port number.
Then the IP header is added, c ontaining the sourc e and destination IP address. Finally the data link
layer adds the ethernet header, which specifies the MAC numbers of the source and destination.
This is the data that is ac tually sent over the wires. As you c an see there's a lot of overhead in an
TCP/IP pac kage. The overhead c an be minimized by choosing a large enough data size for the
pac kage. Luckily winsoc k will arrange this for you.

Networking continued
Now that you know the basic layers of the network interfac e, I will c ontinue with some other
principles conc erning hostnames, c onnec tions and software level protocols.
1 . DNS
DNS stands for Domain Name System, whic h ac c ounts for the conversion of hostnames to and
from IP numbers. Bec ause IP numbers are not easy to remember (well not many at
least), another more c onvenient naming system was c reated. Now, instead of an IP number, you
could use a hostname alternatively. Examples of hostnames are: madwizard.org,
somepc.someuniversity.edu, www.google.com, etc . Anyone browsing the internet has used them.
When c onnecting to a website, its IP is needed. So if you enter a hostname like
www.google.c om, it first needs to lookup the c orresponding IP number of google. This is where
DNS c omes in. Your PC sends out a hostname lookup request to the DNS your provider has setup
in its network. If the DNS c an resolve the hostname, it sends bac k the c orresponding IP to you.
DNS are organized in a hierarc hical way, forwarding unresolvable hostnames to a DNS at a higher
level, until the hostname is resolved.
2 . Conne c tions
TCP/IP is a c onnection-oriented protocol. The connec tion is always between two devices, and
eac h side uses its own IP and port number. Usually, one side is c alled the client, the other side
the server.
The c lient is the one that requests something, the server responses acc ordingly. For example,
when opening a website, the browser is the c lient, the webserver is the server. The browser
initiates the c onnection with the server and requests a spec ific resourc e. The server then sends
bac k a response and the data requested.
The server is c ontinually waiting for incoming c onnections. This is c alled listening, which is
always done on a c ertain IP and port number. The c lient is only ac tive when necessary, as the
client is always the initiator of a connection and the one that requests information. To create a
connec tion, the c lient needs to know both the IP and port number the server is listening on. A
connec tion is made to that server and hopefully ac cepted by the server. While c ommunication
over a TCP/IP c onnection is two-way, many protoc ols (HTTP, FTP, etc ) let the c lient and server
interac t in turn.
Both the server and c lient side use an IP and port number, but the IP and port number of the
server are usually fixed. The standard port for the WWW is 80 (using HTTP). Google for example,
is a webserver that runs on port 80 and IP 216.239.39.101 (at the moment of writing). Eac h
client (read: anyone google- ing :) connects to this IP and port. So the webserver c an have many
connec tions on the same port. This is no problem, sinc e all traffic on that port is for the same
process. On the c lient side, the port number doesn't matter. Any port c an be used. Some people
think that the port number used in a c onnection needs to be the same on both sides. This is not
true. Just open a website and quic kly run 'netstat - an' in a command line. You might see a line
like this:
TCP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:2894 216.239.39.101:80 ESTABLISHED
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx was my IP, 216.239.39.101 is google's IP. The number after the colon is the port
number. As you c an see, the server side uses port 80, while the client uses a random (read: some
free) port number like 2894. Each client connec tion needs a different port number on the c lient
side, since every c onnection is associated with a different c lient.
Client
The program that initiates the connection, and requests information.
Server
The program that listens for incoming connections, accepts them and
responses according to the received requests. The IP and port number of the
server need to be known by the client to connect to it.
3 . Pr otoc ols a ga in
In the previous chapters I have showed several protoc ols at the different levels of a network
interfac e. The protocols I didn't discuss yet are the protocols that work at software level.
Examples of these are HTTP, FTP, POP3, SMTP. Most of them work in a c lient-server way, ie. the
client makes requests, the server responds. The exac t format of the requests and responses are
desc ribed in these protoc ols. I won't discuss them further right now, but I will later when you
know the winsock basic s to actually implement them.
Sockets and winsock

Winsock ('Windows Soc kets') is the Windows API that deals with networking. Many func tions are
implemented in the same way as the Berkeley socket functions used in BSD Unix.
1 . Soc ke ts
So what's a soc ket?
Socket
As explained in the previous chapter, you will work with two-way connections.
The endpoints of this connection are the sockets. Both the client and the
server have a socket. A socket is associated with a certain IP and port
number.
Almost all winsoc k func tions operate on a soc ket, as it's your handle to the c onnection. Both
sides of the c onnection use a socket, and they are not platform- spec ific (ie. a Windows and Unix

Sockets and winsock - MadWizard.org
mac hine c an talk to eac h other using soc kets). Soc kets are also two-way, data can be both sent
and received on a socket.
There are two common types for a socket, one is a streaming soc ket (SOCK_STREAM), the other
is a datagram soc ket (SOCK_DGRAM). The streaming variant is designed for applications that
need a reliable c onnection, often using continuous streams of data. The protoc ol used for this
type of soc ket is TCP. I will only use this type in my tutorial as it's most c ommonly used for the
well known protocols like HTTP, TCP, SMTP, POP3 etc.
Datagram soc kets use UDP as underlying protocol, are c onnectionless, and have a maximum
buffer size. They are intended for applications that send data in small pac kages and that do not
require perfect reliability. Unlike streaming soc kets, datagram sockets do not guarantee data will
reach its destination nor that it comes in the right order. Datagram sockets can be slightly faster
and useful for applic ations like streaming audio or video, where reliability is not as high on the
priority list as speed and latenc y. Where the reliability is required, streaming soc kets are used.
2 . Binding s oc k ets
Binding a socket means associating a specific address (IP & port number) with a given soc ket.
This can be done manually using the bind function, but in some cases winsock will automatic ally
bind the socket. This will bec ome clear in the next paragraphs.
3 . Conne c ting
The way you use a soc ket depends on whether you are on the client side or the server side. The
client side initiates a c onnection by creating a socket, and calling the connect function with the
spec ified address information. Before the socket is connec ted, it is not bound yet to an IP or port
number. Because the c lient side c an use any IP and port number for the connec tion with the
server (provided that network the IP number is part of c an reach the network of the destination
IP), often many useable c ombinations are possible.
When c onnect is called, winsock will c hoose the IP and port number to use for the c onnection
and bind the socket to it before ac tually c onnecting it. The port number c an be anything that is
free at the moment, the IP number needs a bit more c are. PCs may have more than one IP. For
example, a PC connec ted to both the internet and a local network has at least three IPs (the
external IP for use with the internet, the local network IP (192.168.x.x, 10.0.x.x etc .) and the
loop bac k address (127.0.0.1)). Here, it does matter to whic h IP the soc ket is bound as it also
determines the network you are using for the c onnection. If you want to connec t to the local PC
192.168.0.4, you c annot do that using the network of your internet provider, as that IP is never
used in the internet and will not be found. So you would have to bind the soc ket to your IP in the
same network (192.168.0.1 for example). Similarly, when you bind the socket to the local loop
bac k address (127.0.0.1), you can only c onnect to that same address, as no other address exist
in that 'network'.
Fortunately, winsock will c hoose a local IP it c an use for the IP you want to c onnec t to
automatic ally. Nothing stops you from binding the soc ket yourself, but remember that you need
to take the situations above in c onsideration.
Note that the bind func tion gives the user the option to set the IP or port number to zero. In this
case, zero means 'let winsock c hoose something for me'. This is useful when you do want to
connec t using a spec ific IP on the client side, but do not c are about the port number used.
4 . Lis tening
Things are different on the server side. A server has to wait for incoming c onnections and c lients
will need to know both the IP and port number of the server to be able to c onnect to it. To make
things easy, servers almost always use a fixed port number (often the default port number for the
used protocol).
Waiting for incoming connec tions on a specified address is called listening:
Listening
A socket is listening when it is in a state where it will 'listen' for incoming
connections. Usually, this is done on a socket bound to a specific address
known to the client.
As you c an see from the definition above, sockets are often bound to an address before putting it
in the listening state. When the port number of this address is set to a fixed number, the server
will listen for inc oming c onnections on that port number spec ific ally. For example, port 80 (the
default for HTTP) is listened on by most web servers. The soc ket c an be bound to a spec ific IP as
well but when zero is c hosen it will listen on any addresses available, effec tively allowing
connec tions from all networks. It may be set to a fixed IP, for example the IP of the loc al network
interfac e, so c omputers from the local network can c onnect to the server but not the ones
connec ted via the internet.
When a client requests a c onnection to a listening server, the server will ac c ept it (or not) and
spawn another socket whic h will be the endpoint of the c onnection. This way the listening socket
is not used for any data transfer on the c onnection and c an c ontinue listening for more
inc omming c onnec tions.
5 . Conne c tions : a n ex a m ple
Here's a graphic al example of a webserver that can handle multiple c onnections.
1. The server socket is created
The server c reates a new socket. When it's just c reated it is not yet bound to an IP or port
number.
2. The server socket is bound

Bec ause the server is a webserver, it will be bound to port number 80, the default for HTTP.
However the IP number is set to zero, indic ating the server is willing to rec ieve incomming
connec tions from all IPs available for the mac hine it runs on. In this example, we assume the
server has three IPs, one external (216.239.39.101), one internal (192.168.0.8) and of c ourse the
loop back address (127.0.0.1).
3. The server is listening
After the socket is bound, it is put into the listening state, waiting for incomming connec tions on
port 80.
4. A client creates a socket
Assume a client in the same loc al network as the server (192.168.x.x) wants to request a
webpage from the server. To do the data transfer it needs a socket so it creates one.
5. The client socket tries to connect
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The client socket is left unbound and tries to connec t to the webserver.
6. The server accepts the request
The listening soc ket sees some client wants to make a c onnection. It acc epts it by creating a
new socket (on the bottom right) bound to the one of the IPs of itself whic h can be reached by
the c lient (ie. they are in the same network, being 192.168.x.x) and the server port (80). From
this point, the c lient socket and the server c onnection socket just c reated will do the data
transfers, while the listening socket will keep listening for other c onnections. Note that the c lient
socket is now bound to an IP and port sinc e it's c onnected. The dotted gray line shows the
separation of the c lient and server side.
7. Another client connects

If another client (from the external network) c onnects, the server will again create a new soc ket
to deal with the second c onnection. Note that the IP the socket on the server side is bound to is
different than the one from the first c onnection. This is possible bec ause the listening server
socket was not bound to any IP. If it had been bound to 192.168.0.8, the sec ond c onnection
would not be possible.
6 . Bloc k ing
The original func tions in the Berkeley unix implementation of sockets were bloc king functions. This
means that they will just wait when the operation requested cannot be completed immediately.
For example, when c onnecting to a server using the connect function, it did not return until the
connec tion had been made (or failed), thus making the program hang for a while. This is not really
a problem when dealing with a single c onnection using a c onsole mode applic ation but in the
Windows environment, this behavior is rarely ac ceptable. Any program with a window has a
window procedure that has to be kept running. Stalling it would delay user input, window
painting, notific ations, and any other messages resulting in an application that seems to be
hanging while it's using socket functions.
To deal with this problem, winsoc k can set sockets into blocking or non-blocking mode. The
former (bloc king mode) is the original way of using sockets, ie. not returning from the API before
the operation has finished (it will literally block the applic ation). The latter (non-blocking mode) is
the mode you usually use when dealing with a real windows applic ation (ie. not a console
application). When c alling a function on a socket that is in non-blocking mode, the function will
always return as soon as possible, even when the operation to be performed could not be
completed immediately. Instead, a notific ation of some sort will be sent to the program when the
operation is finished, allowing the program to execute in the normal manner while the operation is
unfinished.
Winsock provides several methods of notific ation for non-blocking sockets, including window
messages and event objects. These methods will be disc ussed in detail later, for now just
remember there differenc e between blocking and non-blocking.
7 . W insoc k ve r sions
The most c ommonly used winsock version is version 2.x, usually just c alled winsock 2 as there are
only minor differenc es. The latest version before version 2 was version 1.1. Some people say you
should use this version for compatibility reasons, as Windows 95 and NT 3 only ship version 1.1.
However, all later windows versions (98, ME, NT4, 2000 and XP) have version 2 by default and for
Windows 95 an update is available. So I recommend you just start with winsoc k 2, it adds a lot of
nic e features and windows mac hines without winsock 2 are getting rare.
The two major versions of winsock reside in two different DLLs, wsock32.dll and ws2_32.dll,
being version 1.1 and version 2.x respec tively. The libraries to use
are wsock32.lib and ws2_32.lib. The MASM32 pac kage has most winsock c onstants in its
windows.inc, for C++ programs inc luding windows.h suffices, it will inc lude the winsock 2
definitions if the _WIN32_WINNT c onstant is at least 0x400 (NT version 4). The winsock 2 API
inc ludes the full 1.1 API (with some minor c hanges), wsoc k32.dll is even just a wrapper for the
ac tual winsock ws2_32.dll.
This tutorial will assume you are using winsoc k 2.
8 . W insoc k ar c hite c tur e
Winsock provides two interfaces, the Applic ation Programming Interfac e (API) and the Servic e
Provider Interfac e (SPI). This tutorial is about the API, it c ontains all the functions you need to
communcate using the well-known protocols. The SPI is an interface to add Data Transport
Providers (like TCP/IP or IPX/SPX) or Name Spac e Service Providers (like DNS). These extensions
are transparent to the user of the API.
Basic winsock functions

In this c hapter of the winsock tutorial, I will show you the basic winsoc k functions that operate
on sockets. It is important to remember that this c hapter is only an introduc tion to the socket
functions, so you will be able to follow the next tutorials. Do not start coding immediately after
you've read this c hapter, the next c hapters are just as important.
The basic functionality of eac h function is relatively simple, but things like the bloc king mode
make it more complic ated than it looks at first sight. The next c hapters will c over the details, but
first you need to be familiar with the functions.
This c hapter is quite long and you might not remember everything but that's okay. Just read it
carefully so you know what I'm talking about in the next c hapters, you c an always look bac k here
and use it as a quic k reference.
1 . W SASta r tup & W SACle a nup
int WSAStartup(WORD wVersionRequested, LPWSADATA lpWSAData);

int WSACleanup();
Before c alling any winsoc k function, you need to initialize the winsock library. This is done with
WSAStartup. It takes two parameters:
wVersionRequested
Highest version of Windows Soc kets support that the c aller can use. The high-order byte
spec ifies the minor version (revision) number; the low-order byte specifies the major
version number.
lpWSAData
Pointer to the WSADATA data struc ture that is to rec eive details of the Windows Sockets
implementation.

Basic winsock functions - MadWizard.org
As explained in the introduc tion, I will use winsoc k 2. This means you need to set the low byte of
wVersionRequested to 2, the high byte can be zero (the revision number is not important). The
WSADATA struc ture specified with the lpWSAData parameter will receive some information about
the winsoc k version installed.
The function returns zero if it suc c eeded, otherwise you c an call WSAGetLastError to see what
went wrong. WSAGetLastError is the winsock equivalent of the win32 APIs GetLastError, it
retrieves the c ode of the last oc curred error.
It is important to note that you might not get the version you requested in
the wVersionRequestedparameter. This parameter specifies the highest winsoc k version your
application *supports*, not 'requires'. Winsock will try hard to give you the version you requested
but if that is not possible, it uses a lower version. This version is available after the c all, in
the wVersion member of the WSADATA structure. You should check this version after the call to
see if you really got the winsock version you wanted. There is also a member
called wHighVersion that gives the highest winsock version supported by the system. In short:
wVersionRequested parameter: The highest winsock version your applic ation supports.
wHighVersion in WSADATA: The highest winsoc k version the system supports.
wVersion in WSADATA: min(wVersionRequested, wHighVersion).
Eac h c all to WSAStartup has to match a call to WSACleanup, whic h c leans up the winsoc k library.
Although useless, WSAStartup may be called more than onc e, as long as WSACleanup is called
the same number of times.
An example of initializing and c leaning up winsoc k:
const int iReqWinsockVer = 2; // Minimum winsock version required
WSADATA wsaData;
if (WSAStartup(MAKEWORD(iReqWinsockVer,0), &wsaData)==0)
{
// Check if major version is at least iReqWinsockVer
if (LOBYTE(wsaData.wVersion) >= iReqWinsockVer)
{
/* ------- Call winsock functions here ------- */
}
else
{
// Required version not available
}
// Cleanup winsock
if (WSACleanup()!=0)
{
// cleanup failed
}
}
else
{
// startup failed
}
2 . s ock e t
SOCKET socket(int af, int type, int protocol);
The socket func tion c reates a new socket and returns a handle to it. The handle is of type
SOCKET and is used by all functions that operate on the socket. The only invalid socket handle

value is INVALID_SOCKET (defined as ~0), all other values are legal (this inc ludes the value
zero!). Its parameters are:
af
The address family to use. Use AF_INET to use the address family of TCP & UDP.
type
The type of socket to c reate. Use SOCK_STREAM to c reate a streaming soc ket (using
TCP), or SOCK_DGRAM to c reate a diagram soc ket (using UDP). For more information on
socket types, see the previous c hapter.
protocol
The protoc ol to be used, this value depends on the address family. You c an spec ify
IPPROTO_TCP here to c reate a TCP socket.
The return value is a handle to the new soc ket, or INVALID_SOCKET if something went wrong.
The socket function c an be used like this:
SOCKET hSocket;
hSocket = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_TCP);
if (hSocket==INVALID_SOCKET)
{
// error handling code
}
3 . c los es ock e t
int closesocket(SOCKET s);
Closesocket closes a socket. It returns zero if no error oc curs, SOCKET_ERROR otherwise. Eac h
socket you created with socket has to be c losed with an appropriate c losesocket call.
s
Handle to the socket to be c losed. Do not use this soc ket handle after you c alled this
func tion.
The use of closesoc ket is pretty straightforward:
closesocket(hSocket);
However, in real situations some more operations are necessary to c lose the socket properly. This
will be disc ussed later in the tutorial.
4 . s ock a ddr a nd byte or de r ing
Bec ause winsoc k was made to be c ompatible with several protocols including ones that might be
added later (using the SPI) a general way of addressing has to be used. TCP/IP uses an IP and
port number to spec ify an address, but other protocols might do it differently. If winsock forc ed a
certain way of addressing, adding other protocols may not have been possible. The first version
of winsoc k solved this with the sockaddr struc ture:
struct sockaddr
{
u_short sa_family;
char sa_data[14];
};

In this struc ture, the first member (sa_family) specifies the address family the address is for. The
data stored in the sa_data member can vary among different address families. We will only use
the internet address family (TCP/IP) in this tutorial, winsock has defined a
struc ture sockaddr_in that is the TCP/IP version of the sockaddr structure. They are
essentially the same structure, but the sec ond is obviously easier to manipulate.
struct sockaddr_in
{
short sin_family;
u_short sin_port;
struct in_addr sin_addr;
char sin_zero[8];
};
The last 8 bytes of the structure are not used but are padded (with sin_zero) to give the
struc ture the right size (the same size as sockaddr).
Before proceeding, it is important to know about the network byte order. In c ase you don't know,
byte ordering is the order in which values that span multiple bytes are stored. For example, a 32-
bit integer value like 0x12345678 spans four 8- bit bytes. Intel x86 mac hines use the 'little-endian'
order, whic h means the least significant byte is stored first. So the value 0x12345678 would be
stored as the byte sequence 0x78, 0x56, 0x34, 0x12. Most machines that don't use little-endian
use big-endian, which is exactly the opposite: the most signific ant byte is stored first. The same
value would then be stored as 0x12, 0x34, 0x56, 0x78. Bec ause protocol data c an be transferred
between mac hines with different byte ordering, a standard is needed to prevent the machines
from interpreting the data the wrong way.
Network byte ordering

Because protocols like TC P/IP have to work between different type of systems
with different type of byte ordering, the standard is that values are stored
inbig-endian format, also called network byte order. For example, a port
number (which is a 16-bit number) like 12345 (0x3039) is stored with its most
significant byte first (ie. first 0x30, then 0x39). A 32-bit IP address is stored in
the same way, each part of the IP number is stored in one byte, and the first
part is stored in the first byte. For example, 216.239.51.100 is stored as the
byte sequence '216,239,51,100', in that order.
Apart from the sin_family value of sockaddr and sockaddr_in, whic h is not part of the protoc ol
but tells winsoc k which address family to use, all the values in both structures have to be in
network byte order. Winsock provides several functions to deal with the c onversion between the
byte order of the local host and the network byte order:
// Convert a u_short from host to TCP/IP network byte order.

u_short htons(u_short hostshort);
// Convert a u_long from host to TCP/IP network byte order.
u_long htonl(u_long hostlong);
// Convert a u_long from TCP/IP network order to host byte order.
u_short ntohs(u_short netshort);
// Convert a u_long from TCP/IP network order to host byte order.
u_long ntohl(u_long netlong);
You might question why we should need four API functions for suc h simple operations as
swapping the bytes of a short or long (as that's enough to c onvert from little-endian (intel) to
big-endian (network)). This is bec ause these APIs will work even if you are running your program
on a mac hine with other byte ordering than an intel mac hine (that is, the APIs are platform
independent), like Windows CE on a handheld using a big-endian processor. Whether you use

these APIs or your own macros/functions is up to you. Just know that the API way is guaranteed
to work on all systems.
Bac k to the sockaddr_in structure, as said above, all members except for sin_family have to be
in network byte order. For sin_family use AF_INET. sin_port is the port number of the address
(16-bit), sin_addr is the IP address (32-bit), dec lared as an union to manipulate the full 32- bit
word, the two 16-bit parts or each byte separately. sin_zero is not used.
Here are several examples of initializing soc kaddr_in struc tures:
sockaddr_in sockAddr1, sockAddr2;
// Set address family

sockAddr1.sin_family = AF_INET;
/* Convert port number 80 to network byte order and assign it to

the right structure member. */
sockAddr1.sin_port = htons(80);
/* inet_addr converts a string with an IP address in dotted format to
a long value which is the IP in network byte order.
sin_addr.S_un.S_addr specifies the long value in the address union */
sockAddr1.sin_addr.S_un.S_addr = inet_addr("127.0.0.1");
// Set address of sockAddr2 by setting the 4 byte parts:
sockAddr2.sin_addr.S_un.S_un_b.s_b1 = 127;
The inet_addr func tion in the example above c an c onvert an IP address in dotted string format
to the appropriate 32- bit value in network byte order. There is also a func tion c alled inet_ntoa,
whic h does exac tly the opposite.
As a side note, winsoc k 2 does not require that the structure used to address a soc ket is the
same size of soc kaddr, only that the first short is the address family and that the right structure
size is passed to the functions using it. This allows new protocols to use larger structures. The
sockaddr structure is provided for bac kwards c ompatibility. However, since we will only use
TCP/IP in this tutorial, the soc kaddr_in structure c an be used perfec tly.
5 . c onne ct
int connect(SOCKET s, const struct sockaddr *name, int namelen);
The connec t function connec ts a soc ket with a remote socket. This function is used on the c lient
side of a c onnection, as you are the one initiating it. A short description of its parameters:
s
The unconnected socket you want to c onnect.
name
Pointer to a sockaddr structure that c ontains the name (address) of the remote socket to
c onnect to.
namelen
Size of the struc ture pointed to by name.
The first parameter s is the c lient soc ket used for the c onnection. For example, a socket you've
just c reated with the socket func tion. The other two parameters, name and namelen are used

to address the remote socket (the server soc ket that is listening for inc oming c onnections). This
is done by using a sockaddr structure (or soc kaddr_in for TCP/IP), as described in the previous
section.
A possible use of this function is connecting to a webserver to request a page. To address the
server, you can use sockaddr_in structure and fill it with the server's IP and port number. You
might wonder how you get the IP of a hostname like www.madwizard.org, I will show you how to
do that later. For now, just assume you know the server's IP number.
Assuming a webserver is running on a loc al network PC with IP number 192.168.0.5, using the
default HTTP port 80, this would be the code to c onnect to the server:
/* This code assumes a socket has been created and its handle
is stored in a variable called hSocket */
sockaddr_in sockAddr;
sockAddr.sin_family = AF_INET;
sockAddr.sin_port = htons(80);
sockAddr.sin_addr.S_un.S_addr = inet_addr("192.168.0.5");
// Connect to the server
if (connect(hSocket, (sockaddr*)(&sockAddr), sizeof(sockAddr))!=0)
{
}
/* Note: the (sockaddr*) cast is necessary because connect requires a
sockaddr type variable and the sockAddr variable is of the sockaddr_in
type. It is safe to cast it since they have the same structure, but the
compiler naturally sees them as different types. */
6 . bind
int bind(SOCKET s, const struct sockaddr *name, int namelen);
Binding a socket has been explained in the previous chapter. By binding a socket you assign an
address to a socket. Bind's parameters are:
s
The unbound socket you want to bind.
name
Pointer to a sockaddr structure that contains the address to assign to the socket.
namelen
Size of the struc ture pointed to by name.
For TCP/IP, the sockadrr_in structure can be used as usually. Let's look at an example first:
sockaddr_in sockAddr;
sockAddr.sin_family = AF_INET;
sockAddr.sin_port = htons(80);
sockAddr.sin_addr.S_un.S_addr = INADDR_ANY; // use default
// Bind socket to port 80
if (bind(hSocket, (sockaddr*)(&sockAddr), sizeof(sockAddr))!=0)
{
}
As you c an see, a soc kaddr_in struc ture is filled with the necessary information. The address
family is AF_INET for TCP/IP. In the example, we bind the socket to port number 80, but not to

an IP number. By specifying the INADDR_ANY value as IP address, winsock will choose an
address for you. This can be very useful for PCs with multiple network adapters (and thus multiple
IPs). If you do want to bind to a specific IP, just convert the IP to a DWORD in network byte
order and put it in the structure. Something similar is possible with the port number; when you
spec ify 0 as the port number winsock will assign a unique port with a value between 1024 and
5000. However, most of the time you want to bind to a spec ific port number.
Binding is usually done before putting the socket in a listening state, to make the socket listen on
the right port number (and optionally an IP number). Although you c an also bind a soc ket before
connec ting it, this is not commonly done because the address of the socket on the c lient side is
not important most of the time.
7 . lis te n
int listen(SOCKET s, int backlog);
The listen function puts a socket in the listening state, that is it will be listening for inc oming
connec tions. It has two parameters:
s
The bound, unconnected soc ket you want to set into the listening state.
backlog
Maximum length of the queue of pending c onnections.
The bac klog parameter can be set to specify the length of the queue of pending c onnections that
have not yet been ac cepted. Usually, you c an use the default value SOMAXCONN, allowing the
underlying service provider to c hoose a reasonable value.
Before listen is called, the soc ket must have been bound to an address, as shown in the previous
section. For example, if you bind a socket to port 80 and then c all listen on the socket, all
inc oming connections on port 80 will be routed to your applic ation. To ac tually acc ept the
connec tion, another function c alled acceptis available, it will be explained in the next sec tion.
The following c ode snippet shows how to c all the listen function on a socket that has been bound
already:
/* This code assumes the socket specified by

hSocket is bound with the bind function */
if (listen(hSocket, SOMAXCONN)!=0)
{
}
8 . a c ce pt
SOCKET accept(SOCKET s, struct sockaddr *addr, int *addrlen);
When the socket is in the listening state and an incoming c onnec tion arrives, you c an acc ept it
with the ac cept func tion.
s
The socket that has been plac ed in a listening state with the listen func tion.
addr
Optional pointer to a buffer that receives the address of the remote socket. This parameter
is a pointer to a soc kaddr structure, but its exac t structure is determined by the address
family.
addrlen
Optional pointer to an integer that c ontains the length of addr. Before c alling the function,
the value should be the size of the buffer pointed to by addr. On return, the value is the
size of the data returned in the buffer.
As you know, when a connec tion is ac cepted a new socket is c reated on the server side. This
new soc ket is c onnected to the c lient soc ket, all operations on that connec tion are done with
that soc ket. The original listening socket is not c onnected, but instead listens for more inc oming
connec tions.
sockaddr_in remoteAddr;
int iRemoteAddrLen;
SOCKET hRemoteSocket;
iRemoteAddrLen = sizeof(remoteAddr);
hRemoteSocket = accept(hSocket, (sockaddr*)&remoteAddr, &iRemoteAddrLen);
if (hRemoteSocket==INVALID_SOCKET)
{
}
If ac c ept succ eeds, a c onnection is established and the return value is a new socket handle that
is the server side of the new connection. Optionally, you can set the addr and addrlen
parameters that will receive a sockaddr structure containing the remote address information (IP &
port number).
9 . s e nd a nd r ec v
int send(SOCKET s, const char *buf, int len, int flags);
s
The c onnected soc ket to send data on.
buf
Pointer to a buffer c ontaining the data to send
len
Length of the data pointed to by buf.
flags
Specifies the way in which the call is made.
int recv(SOCKET s, char *buf, int len, int flags);

s
The c onnected soc ket to rec eive data from.
buf
Pointer to a buffer that will rec eive the data.
len
Length of the buffer pointed to by buf.
flags
Specifies the way in which the call is made.

To transfer data on a c onnection, you use the send and recv func tions. Send sends the data in
the buffer on the soc ket and returns the number of bytes sent. Rec v rec eives the data that is
c urrently available at the socket and stores it in the buffer. The flags parameter can usually be set
to zero for both recv and send.
In blocking mode, send will bloc k until all data has been sent (or an error oc curred) and rec v will
return as much information as is c urrently available, up to the size of the buffer spec ified.
Although these func tions may seem simple at first, they become more c omplic ated in non- blocking
mode. When a soc ket is in non-blocking mode, these functions c annot block until the operation is
finished so they may not perform the operation fully (ie. not all data is sent), or not at all. The
next c hapter will explain these issues in great detail, I won't discuss it here sinc e this only a
function overview.
This example of rec v and send on a c onnected soc ket in blocking mode will just send bac k all data
it rec eives.
char buffer[128];
while(true)
{
// Receive data
int bytesReceived = recv(hRemoteSocket, buffer, sizeof(buffer), 0);
if (bytesReceived==0) // connection closed
{
break;
}
else if (bytesReceived==SOCKET_ERROR)
{
}
// Send received data back

if (send(hRemoteSocket, buffer, bytesReceived, 0)==SOCKET_ERROR)
{
}
}
1 0 . Us a ge
As stated in this c hapter's introduction, this was only an overview of the main winsock func tions.
Just knowing how the functions is not enough to program c orrec tly with winsock. The next
c hapters will tell you how to use them correctly, whic h I/O strategies exist and how bloc king and
non-blocking mode works.
I/O models
In c hapter 3 I briefly touc hed blocking and non-blocking sockets, which play a role in the
available winsock I/O models. An I/O model is the method you use to c ontrol the program flow of
the c ode that deals with the network input and output. Winsock provides several functions to
design an I/O strategy, I will disc uss them all here in short to get an overview. Later in the tutorial
I will deal with most models separately and show some examples of them.
1. T he ne e d for an I/O mode l
So why do you need an I/O model? We don't have infinite network speed, so when you send or

I/O models - MadWizard.org
rec eive data the operation you asked for may not be c ompleted immediately. Espec ially with
networks, which are slow c ompared to 'normal', loc al operations. How do you handle this? You
c ould c hoose to do other things while you're waiting to try again, or let your program wait until the
operation is done, etc. The best c hoice depends on the structure and requirements of your
program.
Originally, Berkeley soc kets used the blocking I/O model. This means that all socket func tions
operate synchronously, ie. they will not return before the operation is finished. This kind of
behavior is often undesirable in the Windows environment, bec ause often user input and output
should still be processed even while network operations might occ ur (I explained this earlier in
c hapter 3). To solve this problem, non-blocking soc kets were introduced.
2. Non-blocking model
A socket can be set into non-blocking mode using ioctlsocket (with FIONBIO as its c md
parameter). Some functions used in I/O models implicitly set the socket in non-blocking mode (more
on this later). When a socket is in non-blocking mode, winsoc k functions that operate on it will
never block but always return immediately, possibly failing because there simply wasn't any time to
perform the operation. Non-blocking soc kets introduce a new winsock error c ode whic h - unlike
other errors - is not exc eptional. For now, keep the following in mind:
WSAEWOULDBLOCK
This constant is the error code a winsock function sets when it cannot
immediately perform an operation on a non-blocking socket. You get this
error code when you call WSAGetLastError after a winsock function failed.
Its name literally says 'error, would block', meaning that the function would
have to block to complete. Since a non-blocking socket should not block, the
function can never do what you ask it to.
Note that this isn't really an error. It can occur all the time when using non-
blocking sockets. It just says: I can't do that right now, try again later. The
I/O model usually provides a way to determine what's the best time to try
again.
3. I/O mode ls
I've made several attempts to find a c ategoric al description of the several I/O models but I haven't
really found a good one, mainly bec ause the models' properties overlap and terms like
(a)sync hronous have slightly different meanings or apply to different things for each model. So I
dec ided to just create a table with all the models to show the differences and explain the details
later.
Notification method
Model Blocking mode on network
none on completion
event
Blocking sockets blocking x
Polling non-blocking x
Select both blocking select
window
WSAAsyncSelect non-blocking
message
WSAEventSelect non-blocking event objects
Overlapped I/O: blocking N/A blocking call
Overlapped I/O: polling N/A x
Overlapped I/O: completion routines N/A callback function
Overlapped I/O: completion ports N/A completion port

The first five models are c ommonly used and fairly easy to use. The last four ac tually use the same
model (overlapped I/O), but use different implementation methods. Actually, you don't really need
overlapped I/O unless you're writing network programs that should be able to handle thousands of
c onnections. Most people won't write such programs but I included them because good information
and tutorials about the overlapped I/O model is not easy to find on the web. If you're not
interested in overlapped I/O you c an safely skip the future c hapters about them.
One way to divide the I/O models is based on the bloc king mode it uses. The blocking sockets
model naturally uses bloc king mode, while the others use non-blocking mode (select may be used
for both). The bloc king mode is not applic able to overlapped I/O bec ause these operations always
operate async hronously (the blocking mode c annot affec t this nor the other way around).
Another way to divide them is using their differences in the notific ation method used (if any).
There are three subtypes:
None
There is no notification of anything, an operation simply fails or suc c eeds (optionally blocking).
On network event
A notification is sent on a specific network event (data available, ready to send, inc oming
connec tion waiting to be acc epted, etc.). Operations fail if they c annot c omplete immediately,
the network event notific ation c an be used to determine the best time to try again.
On completion
A notification is sent when a pending network operation has been c ompleted. Operations either
succ eed immediately, or fail with an 'I/O pending' error c ode (assuming nothing else went wrong).
You will be notified when the operation does complete, eliminating the need to try the operation
again.
Blocking mode doesn't use any notific ations, the call will just block until the operation finished.
WSAAsync Select is an example of a network event notific ation model as you will be notified by a
window message when a spec ific network event occ urred. The c ompletion notific ation method is
solely used by overlapped I/O, and is far more effic ient. They are bound directly to the operations;
the big differenc e between the network event and c ompletion notific ation is that a completion
notific ation will be about a spec ific operation you requested, while a network event c an happen
bec ause of any reason. Also, overlapped I/O operations c an - like its name says - overlap. That
means multiple I/O requests c an be queued.
In the next section I will show you the details of eac h model separately. To give you a more
intuitive view of the models, I've created timeline images and used a c onversation between the
program and winsoc k as an analogy to how the model works.
Note
In many of these timelines I've assumed the winsock operation fails (in a WSAEWOULDBLOCK way)
bec ause that is the interesting case. The func tion might as well suc ceed and return immediately if
the operation has been done already. I've left this c ase out in most of the timelines in favor of
c larity.

4. Blocking socke ts
Blocking soc kets are the easiest to use, they were already used in the first socket
implementations. When an operation performed on a blocking socket c annot c omplete immediately,
the socket will block (ie. halt exec ution) until it is completed. This implies that when you call a
winsock function like send or rec v, it might take quite a while (c ompared to other API c alls) before
it returns.
This is the timeline for a bloc king soc ket:
As you can see, as soon as the main thread c alls a winsock func tion that couldn't be completed
immediately, the function will not return until it is c ompleted. Naturally this keeps the program flow
simple, since the operations c an be sequenc ed easily.
By default, a socket is in blocking mode and behaves as shown above. As I told earlier, I will also
show eac h I/O model in the form of a conversation between the program and winsock. For blocking
soc kets, it's very simple:
program: send this data

winsock: okay, but it might take some time
...
...
...
done!
5. Polling
Polling is actually a very bad I/O model in windows,

but for completeness' sake of I will describe it.
Polling is an I/O model for non-blocking sockets,
so the socket first has to be put into non-blocking
mode. This c an be done with ioctlsocket .
Polling in general is repeating something until its status
is the desired one, in this case repeating a winsock function
until it returns successfully:

7/23/2010 I/O models - MadWizard.org
Bec ause the soc ket is non- bloc king, the function will not block until the operation is finished. If it
c annot perform the operation it has to fail (with WSAEWOULDBLOCK as error code). The polling I/O
model just keeps c alling the function in a loop until it suc ceeds:

winsock: sorry can't do that right now, I would block
winsock: done!
As I said, this is a really bad method bec ause its effec t is the same as a blocking function, exc ept
that you have some control inside the loop so you c ould stop waiting when some variable is set, for
example. This style of sync hronization is c alled 'busy waiting', whic h means the program is
c ontinuously busy with waiting, wasting precious CPU time. Bloc king soc kets are far more effic ient
since they use an efficient wait state that requires nearly no CPU time until the operation
c ompletes.
Now you know how the polling I/O model works, forget about it immediately and avoid it by all
means :)
6. Se le ct
Selec t provides you a more c ontrolled way of bloc king. Although it c an be used on blocking sockets
too, I will only foc us on the non- bloc king socket usage. This is the timeline for selec t:
V
And the c orresponding c onversation:

program: okay, tell me when's the best time to try again (the select call)
winsock: sure, hang on a minute
...
...
try again now!
winsock: done!
You might have notic ed that the selec t call looks suspic iously similar to the blocking soc ket
timeline. This is bec ause the select function does block. The first c all tries to perform the winsock
operation. In this case, the operation would block but the func tion can't so it returns. Then at one
point, selec t is c alled. Select will wait until the best time to retry the winsock operation. So
instead of bloc king winsoc k functions, we now have only one func tion that bloc ks, selec t.
If selec t blocks, why use it for non- bloc king soc kets then? Selec t is more powerful than blocking
soc kets bec ause it c an wait on multiple events. This is the prototype of selec t:
select PROTO nfds:DWORD, readfds:DWORD, writefds:DWORD, exceptfds:DWORD,

timeout:DWORD
Selec t determines the status of one or more sockets, performing synchronous I/O if necessary. The
nfds parameter is ignored, selec t is one of the original Berkeley sockets functions, it is provided for
c ompatibility. The timeout parameter c an be used to spec ify an optional timeout for the func tion.
The other three parameters all specify a set of soc kets.
readfds is a set of sockets that will be c hec ked for readability

writefds is a set of sockets that will be c hecked for writability
exceptfds is a set of sockets that will be c hecked for errors
Readability means that data has arrived on a soc ket and that a call to read after select is likely to
rec eive data. Writability means it's a good time to send data sinc e the rec eiver is probably ready to
rec eive it. Exceptfds is used to c atc h errors from a non- bloc king c onnect c all as well as out- of-
band data (whic h is not disc ussed in this tutorial).
So while selec t may bloc k you have more control over it sinc e you c an spec ify more than one
soc ket to wait on for a spec ific event, and multiple types of events (data waiting, ready to send or
some error that has occ urred). Selec t will be explained more detailed in later c hapters.
7. Windows message s (WSAASyncSe le ct)
Many windows programs have some kind of window to get input from and give information to the
user. Winsock provides a way to integrate the network event notific ation with a windows's
message handling. The WSAAsyncSelect function will register notific ation for the spec ified
network events in the form of a custom window message.

WSAAsyncSelect PROTO s:DWORD, hWnd:DWORD, wMsg:DWORD, lEvent:DWORD
This function requires a c ustom message (wMsg) that the user chooses and the window procedure
should handle. lEvent is a bit mask that selects the events to be notified about. The timeline is as
follows:
Let's say the first message wants to write some data to the socket using send. Bec ause the
soc ket is non-blocking, send will return immediately. The call might succ eed immediately, but here
it didn't (it would need to block). Assuming WSAAsyncSelect was setup to notify you about the
FD_WRITE event, you will eventually get a message from winsock telling you a network event has
happened. In this case it's the FD_WRITE event which means something like: "I'm ready again, try
resending your data now". So in the handler of that message, the program tries to send the data
again, and this is likely to succ eed.
The conversation between the program and winsock is muc h like the one with selec t, the
difference is in the method of notific ation: a window message instead of a sync hronous select c all.
While selec t blocks waiting until an event happens, a program using WSAASync Selec t can c ontinue
to process windows messages as long as no events happen.
program registers for network event notification via window messages

program handles some message
program handles some other message
program gets a notification window message from winsock
winsock: done!
WSAAsync Select provide a more 'Windows natural' way of event notific ation and is fairly easy to
use. For low traffic servers (ie. < 1000 connections) it effic ient enough as well. The drawback is
that window messages aren't really fast and that you'll need a window in order to use it.

8. Ev e nt obje cts (WSAEv e ntSe le ct)
WSAAsync Select brother is WSAEventSelec t, whic h works in a very similar way but uses event
objec ts instead of windows messages. This has some advantages, including a better separation of
the network c ode and normal program flow and better efficiency (event objects work faster than
window messages).
Have a good look at the timeline and conversation, it looks a bit c omplic ated but it really isn't:
program registers for network event notification via event objects

program waits for the event object to signal
winsock: done!
It's hard to draw a timeline for this function since event objects are a very powerful mechanism
that c an be used in many ways. I c hose for a simple example here as this I/O model will be
explained in great detail later in this tutorial.
At first, this model seems a lot like blocking: you wait for an event object to be signaled. This is
true, but you can also wait for multiple events at the same time and create your own event
objec ts. Event objec ts are part of the windows API, winsoc k uses the same objects. Winsock does
have special functions to c reate the event objec ts but they are just wrappers around the usual
functions.
All that winsock does with this model is signaling an event objec t when a winsock event happens.
How you use this notific ation method is up to you. That makes it a very flexible model.
The function used to register for network events is WSAEventSelect. It is much like
WSAAsync Select:
WSAEventSelect PROTO s:DWORD, hEventObject:DWORD, lNetworkEvents:DWORD

WSAAsync Select will send you a c ustom message with the network event that happened
(FD_READ, FD_WRITE, etc.). Unlike WSAAsync Selec t, WSAEventSelect has only one way of
notific ation: signaling the event objec t. When the objec t is signaled, one or more events may
have happened. Which events exac tly c an be found out with WSAEnumNetworkEvents.
9. Use with thre ads
Before starting with the overlapped I/O models I first want to explain some things about the use of
threads. Some of the models explained c an show different behavior when threads come into play.
For example, blocking sockets in a single threaded applic ation will block the whole application. But
when the blocking sockets are used in a separate thread, the main thread c ontinues to run while
the helper thread bloc ks. For low traffic servers (let's say 10 connec tions or so), an easy to
implement method is to use the select model with one thread per c lient. Each running thread is
bound to a spec ific connec tion, handling requests and responses for that partic ular c onnection.
Other ways of using threads are possible too, like handling multiple c onnections per thread to limit
the number of threads (this is useful for servers with many c onnections), or just one main thread
to handle the user input/GUI and one worker thread that deals with all the socket I/O.
The same thing holds for the other models, although some combine better with threads than
others. For example, WSAAsyncSelect uses window messages. You c ould use threads but you
somehow have to pass the received messages to the worker threads. Easier to use is
WSAEventSelec t, sinc e threads c an wait on events (even multiple) so notific ations c an be directly
acted on in the thread. Pure blocking sockets c an be used as well, but it's hard to get some
c ontrol over a thread that is blocked on a winsock func tion (selec t has the same problem). With
events, you c an c reate a c ustom event (not winsock related) and use that to notify the thread
about something that hasn't got to do with soc ket I/O like shutting down the server.
As you can see, threads c an be very powerful and c hange the abilities of an I/O model radic ally.
Many servers need to handle multiple requests at the same time so that's why threads are a logical
c hoic e to implement this; threads all run at the same time. In later c hapters I will disc uss the use
of threads, for now it's enough to know you c an use them.
10. Introduction to Ov e rlappe d I/O
Overlapped I/O is very effic ient and when implemented well also very sc alable (allowing many,
many c onnections to be handled). This is especially true for overlapped I/O in c ombination with
c ompletion ports. I said before that for most uses overlapped I/O is a bit overkill but I will explain
them anyway.
The async hronous models disc ussed so far all send some kind of notific ation on the oc currence of a
network event like 'data available' or 'ready to send again'. The overlapped I/O models also notify
you, but about completion instead of a network event. When requesting a winsock operation, it
might either complete immediately or fail with WSA_IO_PENDING as the winsock error c ode. In the
latter c ase, you will be notified when the operation is finished. This means you don't have to try
again like with the other models, you just wait until you're told it's done.
The price to pay for this efficient model is that overlapped I/O is a bit tric ky to implement. Usually
one of the other models can stand up to the task as well, prefer those if you don't need really high
performance and sc alability. Also, the windows 9x/ME series do not fully support all overlapped I/O
performance and sc alability. Also, the windows 9x/ME series do not fully support all overlapped I/O
models. While NT4/2K/XP has full kernel support for overlapped I/O, win9x/ME has none. However
for some devic es (including sockets), overlapped I/O is emulated by the windows API in win9x/ME.
This means you c an use overlapped I/O with winsock for win9x/ME, but NT+ has a much greater
support for it and provides more func tionality. For example, I/O c ompletion ports are not available
at all on win9x systems. Besides, if you're writing high- performanc e applications that require
overlapped I/O I strongly rec ommend running it on an NT+ system.
As with the network event notific ation models, overlapped I/O c an be implemented in different
ways too. They differ in the method of notific ation: blocking, polling, c ompletion routines and
c ompletion ports.
11. Ov e rlappe d I/O: blocking on e v e nt
The first overlapped I/O model I'm going to explain is using an event objec t to signal c ompletion.
This is much like WSAEventSelec t, exc ept that the objec t is set into the signaled state on
c ompletion of an operation, not on some network event. Here's the timeline:
As with WSAEventSelec t, there are many ways to use the event objec t. You c ould just wait for it,
you c ould wait for multiple objec ts, etc . In the timeline above a blocking wait is used, matc hing
this simple conversation:

winsock: okay, but I couldn't send it right now
program waits for the event object to signal, indicating completion of the
operation
As you can see, the winsock operation is actually performed at the same time as the main thread is
running (or waiting in this case). When the event is signaled, the operation is c omplete and the
main thread c an perform the next I/O operation. With network event notific ation models, you
probably had to retry the operation. This is not nec essary here.

12. Ov e rlappe d I/O: polling

Just like the polling model mentioned earlier, the status of an overlapped I/O operation c an be
polled too. The WSAGetOverlappedResult func tion c an be used to determine the status of a
pending operation. The timeline and c onversation are pretty muc h the same as the other polling
model, exc ept for that the operation happens at the same time as the polling, and that the status
is the completion of the operation, not whether the operation suc c eeded immediately or would
have blocked.

program: are you done yet?
winsock: no
winsock: no
winsock: no
winsock: no
winsock: yes!
Again, polling isn't very good as it puts too much stress on the CPU. Continuously asking if an
operation c ompletes is less effic ient than just waiting for it in an effic ient, little CPU c onsuming
wait state. So I don't c onsider this a very good I/O model either. This doesn't render
WSAGetOverlappedResult useless though, it has more uses, whic h I will show when the tutorial
c omes to the c hapters about overlapped I/O.
13. Ov e rlappe d I/O: comple tion routine s
Completion routines are c allback routines that get c alled when an operation (which you associated
with the routine) c ompletes. This looks quite simple but there is a tricky part: the c allbac k routine
is c alled in the context of the thread that initiated the operation. What does that mean? Imagine a
thread just asked for an overlapped write operation. Winsock will perform this operation while your
main thread continues to run. So winsock has its own thread for the operation. When the operation
finishes, winsock will have to call the c allbac k routine. If it would just c all it, the routine would be
run in the context of the winsock thread. This means the c alling thread (the thread that asked for
the operation) would be running at the same time as the c allback routine. The problem with that is
that you don't have synchronization with the calling thread, it doesn't know the operation
c ompleted unless the c allbac k tells him somehow.
To prevent this from happening, winsock makes sure the callbac k is run in the c ontext of the
c alling thread by using the APC (Async hronous Procedure Call) mec hanism included in windows. You
c an look at this as 'injecting' a routine into a threads program flow so it will run the routine and
then continue with what it was doing. Of c ourse the system can't just say to a thread: "Stop doing
whatever you were doing, and run this routine first!". A thread can't just be intervened at any
point.
In order to deal with this, the APC mec hanism requires the thread to be in a so-c alled alertable
wait state. Each thread has its own APC queue where APCs are waiting to be c alled. When the
thread enters an alertable wait state it indic ates that it's willing to run an APC. The function that
put the thread in this wait state (for example SleepEx, WaitForMultipleObjec tsEx and more) either
returns on the normal events for that function (timeout, triggered event etc.) or when an APC was
executed.
Overlapped I/O with c ompletion routines use the APC mec hanism (though slightly wrapped) to
notify you about c ompletion of an operation. The timeline and c onversation are:

program enters an alertable wait state
the operation completes
winsock: system, queue this completion routine for that thread
the wait state the program is in is alerted
the wait function executes the queued completion routine and returns to the
program
APCs can be a bit hard to understand but don't worry, this is just an introduction. Usually a thread
is in the alertable wait state until the c allbac k is c alled, whic h handles the event and returns to the
thread. The thread then does some operations if necessary and finally loops bac k to the wait state
again.
14. Ov e rlappe d I/O: comple tion ports
We've finally c ome to the last and probably most efficient winsoc k I/O model: overlapped I/O with
c ompletion ports. A completion port is a mechanism available in NT kernels (win9x/ME has no
support for it) to allow efficient management of threads. Unlike the other models discussed so far,
c ompletion ports have their own thread management. I didn't draw a timeline nor made a
c onversation for this model, as it probably wouldn't make things c learer. I did draw an image of the
mec hanism itself, have a good look at it first:
The idea behind completion ports is the following. After c reating the completion port, multiple
soc kets (or files) can be associated with it. At that point, when an overlapped I/O operation
c ompletes, a completion pac ket is sent to the completion port. The c ompletion port has a pool of
similar worker threads, eac h of which are blocking on the completion port. On arrival of a
c ompletion packet, the port takes one of the inactive queued threads and ac tivates it. The
activated thread handles the completion event and then blocks again on the port.
The management of threads is done by the c ompletion port. There are a certain number of threads
running (waiting on the completion port actually), but usually not all of them are ac tive at the
same time. When c reating the c ompletion port you c an spec ify how many threads are ac tive at the
same time. This value defaults to the number of CPUs in the system.
Completion ports are a bit c ounter intuitive. There is no relation between a thread and a
c onnection or operation. Each thread has to be able to ac t on any c ompletion event that
happened on the completion port. I/O completion ports (IOCP) are not easy to implement but
provide a very good scalability. You will be able to handle thousands of c onnections with IOCP.
15. Conclusion
I hope you now have a global view of all the I/O models available. Don't worry if you don't fully
understand them, the next chapters will explain them more detailed, one at a time.

Blocking sockets: client - MadWizard.org
Blocking sockets: client

The first I/O model I'm going to explain to you is the simplest one, the bloc king soc kets. Winsoc k
func tions operating on blocking sockets will not return until the requested operation has c ompleted
or an error has oc curred. This behavior allows a pretty linear program flow so it's easy to use them.
In c hapter 4, you've seen the basic winsock func tions. These are pretty much all func tions you need
to program blocking soc kets, although I will show you some additional func tions that may be useful
in this c hapter.
You might not be very interested in blocking sockets if you plan to use an I/O model that uses non-
blocking socket. Nonetheless, I strongly rec ommend you to read the c hapters about bloc king sockets
too sinc e they cover the socket programming basics and other useful winsoc k features I will assume
you remember for the next chapters.
1. A s im ple c lient
The first example is a simple c lient program that connec ts to a website and makes a request. It will
be a console application as they work well with blocking sockets. I won't assume you have deep
knowledge of the HTTP (the protocol used for the web), this is what happens in short:
The c lient c onnects to the server (on port 80 by default)
The server acc epts the c onnection and just waits
The c lients sends its HTTP request as an HTTP request message
The server responds to the HTTP request with an HTTP response message
The server c loses the c onnection*
*) This depends on the value of the connection HTTP header, but to keep things simple, we assume
the c onnection will always be c losed.
HTTP follows the typic al c lient- server model, the client and server talk to eac h other in turns. The
c lient initiates the requests; the server reac ts with a response.
An HTTP request includes a request method of whic h the three most used
are GET and POST and HEAD. GET is used to get a resource from the web (webpage, image, etc.).
POST sends data to the server first (like form data filled by the user), then rec eives the server's
response. Finally, HEAD is the same as GET, except for that the actual data is not send by the
server, only the HTTP response message. HEAD is used as a fast way to see if a page has been
modified without having to download the full page data. In the example program I will use HEAD sinc e
GET can return quite some data while HEAD will only return a response c ode and set of headers so
the program's output easier to read.
A typic al HTTP request with the HEAD request method looks like this:
HEAD / HTTP/1.1 <crlf>
Host: www.google.com <crlf>
User-agent: HeadReqSample <crlf>
Connection: close <crlf>
<crlf>
The first / in the fist line is the requested page, in this c ase the server's root (default page).
HTTP/1.1 indicates version 1.1 of the HTTP protocol is used. After this first spec ial line that contains
the c ommand follows a set of header in the form "header-name: value", terminated by a blank line.
As line terminators, a combination of carriage return (CR, 0x0D) and line feed (LF, 0x0A) is used.
That last blank line indic ates the end of the c lient's request. As soon as the server detec ts this, it
will send bac k a response in this form:
HTTP/1.1 Response-code Response-message <crlf>

header-name: value <crlf>
<crlf>
As you c an see the response format is much like that of a request. Response- code is a 3-digit c ode
that indicates the suc c ess or failure of the request. Typical response codes are 200 (everything
OK), 404 (page not found, you probably knew this one :) and 302 (found but located elsewhere,
redirect). Response-message is a human- readable version of the response c ode and c an be anything
the server likes. The set of headers inc lude information about the requested resource. A HEAD
request will result in the above response. If the request method would have been GET, the ac tual
page data will be sent bac k by the server after this response message.
So far for the crash c ourse HTTP, it's not really nec essary to understand it all to read the examples
about bloc king sockets, but now you have some background information too. If you want to read
more about HTTP, find the RFC for it (www.rfc -editor.org) or google for HTTP. Another great
introduction to HTTP is HTTP made really easy.
2. Pr ogr a m e x am ple
A possible output of the example program c alled HeadReq is shown here:
X:\>headreq www.microsoft.com
Initializing winsock... initialized.
Looking up hostname www.microsoft.com... found.
Creating socket... created.
Attempting to connect to 207.46.134.190:80... connected.
Sending request... request sent.
Dumping received data...
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Connection: close
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2003 20:14:03 GMT
Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
P3P: CP='ALL IND DSP COR ADM CONo CUR CUSo IVAo IVDo PSA PSD TAI TELo OUR
SAMo C
NT COM INT NAV ONL PHY PRE PUR UNI'
Content-Length: 31102
Content-Type: text/html
Expires: Mon, 17 Mar 2003 20:14:03 GMT
Cache-control: private

Cleaning up winsock... done.
If the program's parameter (www.mic rosoft.c om) is omitted, www.google.c om is used.
3. Hostnam e s
So what do we need for the c lient? I'm assuming you have the address of the webpage
(www.google.com for example) and you want to get the default webpage for it, like the page you
get when entering www.google.com in your web browser (in order to keep things simple we will only
receive the server's response headers, not the actual page).
As you know from c hapter 4, you c an c onnec t a socket to a server with the connect function, but
this function requires a sockaddr structure (or sockaddr_in in the case of TCP/IP). How do we build
up this structure? Sockaddr_in needs an address family, an IP number and a port number. The
address family is simply AF_INET. The port number is also easy; the default for the HTTP protocol is
port 80. What about the IP, we only got a hostname? If you remember c hapter 2 there's a DNS
server that knows whic h IPs c orrespond to which hostnames. To find this out, winsoc k has a
func tion c alled gethostbyname:
hostent * gethostbyname(const char *name);
You simply provide this func tion a hostname as a string (eg. "www.google.com") and it will return a
pointer to a hostent structure. This hostent struc ture contains a list of addresses (IPs) that are
valid for the given hostname. One of these IPs can then be put into the sockaddr_in structure and
we're done.
4. Fr a m e w or k
The program we're going to write will c onnect to a web server, send a HEAD HTTP request and dump
all output. An optional parameter spec ifies the server name to c onnec t to, if no name is given it
defaults to www.google.c om.
First of all, we define the framework for the applic ation:
#include <iostream>
#define WIN32_MEAN_AND_LEAN
#include <winsock2.h>
#include <windows.h>
using namespace std;
class HRException
{
public:
HRException() :
m_pMessage("") {}
virtual ~HRException() {}
HRException(const char *pMessage) :
m_pMessage(pMessage) {}
const char * what() { return m_pMessage; }
private:
const char *m_pMessage;
};
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
// main program
}

The winsock headers are already included by windows.h, but bec ause we use some winsock 2
spec ific things we also need to include winsock2.h. Include this file before windows.h to prevent it
from inc luding an older winsock version first. We will also need the STL's iostream c lasses, so we
included those too. Don't forget to link to ws2_32.lib, or you'll get a bunc h of unresolved symbol
errors.
The HRExc eption class is a simple exception c lass used to throw errors that occ ur. One of its
c onstructors takes a const char * with an error message that c an be retrieved with the what()
method.
5. Cons tants and globa l da ta
The program will need some c onstants and global data, whic h we define in the following code
snippet:
const int REQ_WINSOCK_VER = 2; // Minimum winsock version required

const char DEF_SERVER_NAME[] = "www.google.com";
const int SERVER_PORT = 80;
const int TEMP_BUFFER_SIZE = 128;
const char HEAD_REQUEST_PART1[] =
{
"HEAD / HTTP/1.1\r\n" // Get root index from server
"Host: " // Specify host name used
};
const char HEAD_REQUEST_PART2[] =
{
"\r\n" // End hostname header from part1
"User-agent: HeadReqSample\r\n" // Specify user agent
"Connection: close\r\n" // Close connection after response
"\r\n" // Empty line indicating end of request
};
// IP number typedef for IPv4
typedef unsigned long IPNumber;
These c onstants and data define the default hostname (www.google.c om), server port (80 for
HTTP), receive buffer size, and the minimum (major) winsock version required (2 or higher in our
c ase). Furthermore, the full HTTP request is put in two variables. The request is split up because the
hostname of the server needs to be inserted as the host header (see the HTTP message examples
above). While all strings in C automatic ally get a 0 byte at the end to terminate it, we don't actually
treat it as a null-terminated string. Only the text itself will be send, without the null terminator.
Finally, unsigned long is typedef'ed to IPNumber to make the c ode a bit c learer.
6. The m a in func tion
The first thing to do is initializing winsock. We will do this in the main function and write the ac tual
c ode for the HTTP request in a different func tion named RequestHeaders. The main function is:

{
int iRet = 1;
WSADATA wsaData;
cout << "Initializing winsock... ";
if (WSAStartup(MAKEWORD(REQ_WINSOCK_VER,0), &wsaData)==0)
{
// Check if major version is at least REQ_WINSOCK_VER
if (LOBYTE(wsaData.wVersion) >= REQ_WINSOCK_VER)
{
cout << "initialized.\n";

// Set default hostname:

const char *pHostname = DEF_SERVER_NAME;
// Set custom hostname if given on the commandline:
if (argc > 1)
pHostname = argv[1];
iRet = !RequestHeaders(pHostname);
}
else
{
cerr << "required version not supported!";
}
cout << "Cleaning up winsock... ";
// Cleanup winsock
{
cerr << "cleanup failed!\n";
iRet = 1;
}
cout << "done.\n";
}
else
{
cerr << "startup failed!\n";
}
return iRet;
}
The value the main function returns will be given back as exit code to the OS. Sinc e the c onvention
for c ommand line program is that an exit code of 0 indicates succ ess while other values indicate
some kind of error, we will follow this and return the correc t value depending on the suc c ess of the
winsock initialization and the RequestHeaders function.
First of all, WSAStartup is c alled. It wants the highest winsoc k version your program supports
(REQ_WINSOCK_VER) and fills in a WSADATA struc ture. After we check if this func tion suc ceeded,
we still need to check which winsoc k version has been loaded, since this might be less than
REQ_WINSOCK_VER (see c hapter 4). If the major version number is at least REQ_WINSOCK_VER, we
got the right version.
Then, argc is checked to see if a parameter was given to the program. If there was, it should be a
hostname and instead of the default hostname, the parameter comes from argv and is passed on to
RequestHeaders.
If WSAStartup succ eeded, a matc hing call to WSACleanup is needed. This is done at the end of
the c ode.
7. Re que stHe ade rs
RequestHeaders is the function where all the magic happens. The basic structure of it is:
bool RequestHeaders(const char *pServername)

{
SOCKET hSocket = INVALID_SOCKET;
char tempBuffer[TEMP_BUFFER_SIZE];
sockaddr_in sockAddr = {0};
bool bSuccess = true;
try
{
// code goes here
}
catch(HRException e)
{
cerr << "\nError: " << e.what() << endl;
bSuccess = false;
}
return bSuccess;
}
As a parameter, RequestHeaders gets the name of the server to connec t to. There are some
variables we will use, the socket handle, a temporary buffer used to store rec eived data and a
sockaddr_in struc ture for the server's address. The soc ket handle is initialized to INVALID_SOCKET,
the only value that c an't be used as a soc ket handle. bSucc ess is a bool that is set to false if the
func tion fails. The main c ode is surrounded by a try-c atch bloc k, any error that occ urs is thrown as
a standard STL exc eption and c aught by this func tion. The cleanup c ode will be after the try-c atch
block, so cleaning up happens both when everything succ eeds and on failure.
The RequestHeaders function has the following tasks:
Resolve the hostname to its IP.

Create a soc ket.
Connect the socket to the remote host.
Send the HTTP request data.
Rec eive data and print it until the other side c loses the connection.
Cleanup
I will show you how to implement eac h step in the next sec tions.
8. Re solving the hos tna m e to its IP
To connec t to the server, we need to fill a sockaddr_in structure with its address. As I said earlier,
this structure consists of an address family (always AF_INET), an IP number and a port number.
Although the port number is not always 80 for web servers, we will assume it is. I also explained
gethostbyname can be used to lookup a hostname at the DNS server and retrieve its IP number. The
next function of our program,FindHostIP, uses this winsock function.
Note that looking up a host involves a request to a DNS server so it might take some time (typically
only 10 milliseconds or so but that's slow c ompared to normal c ode). If the hostname isn't found, it
might even take sec onds. Bec ause we are using blocking sockets, the program will simply hang on
gethostbyname until it either succ eeds or fails. While gethostbyname is running, we have no control
over our program. But as the program is a c onsole program, this doesn't matter.
IPNumber FindHostIP(const char *pServerName)

{
HOSTENT *pHostent;
// Get hostent structure for hostname:
if (!(pHostent = gethostbyname(pServerName)))
throw HRException("could not resolve hostname.");
// Extract primary IP address from hostent structure:

if (pHostent->h_addr_list && pHostent->h_addr_list[0])
return *reinterpret_cast<IPNumber*>(pHostent->h_addr_list[0]);
return 0;
}
Gethostbyname takes a hostname as its single parameter and returns a pointer to

a hostent struc ture. Note that it c annot handle hostnames that are IPs in string form (like
"101.102.103.104"). Therefore our program does not ac cept an IP number as server name in the first

parameter. If you would want to allow this, the string c an be c onverted into a number with
the inet_addr function.
If the func tion fails it returns NULL, whic h is the first thing we c heck. It means the server name
c ould not be resolved. If it did succ eed, we now have a hostent struc ture pointer. This allocated
memory doesn't need to be freed; winsock has a piece of memory for eac h thread specific ally for
storing this data in. However this does imply that on the next c all to gethostbyname, you c annot
use the hostent structure returned by a previous c all to it, since it would have been overwritten.
The hostent struc ture can c ontain a list of addresses, whic h do not nec essarily have to be IP
numbers. Since we use TCP/IP, they will be IP numbers but the structure still has to support other
forms of addresses. The h_addr_list member of hostent points to a null- terminated array of other
pointers. Each pointer points in that array points to an address. Sinc e the hostent structure does
not know the type of addresses used, you need to c ast the pointers to the right type, in this c ase
IPNumber*. The FindHostIP c ode extracts the first available IP address from this structure and
returns it. Some additional pointer c hec ks ensure that the program doesn't crash if the pointers are
not set or arrays are empty.
The return value of this function, the IP number in network byte order, is used by FillSockAddr:
void FillSockAddr(sockaddr_in *pSockAddr, const char *pServerName, int portNumber)

{
// Set family, port and find IP
pSockAddr->sin_family = AF_INET;
pSockAddr->sin_port = htons(portNumber);
pSockAddr->sin_addr.S_un.S_addr = FindHostIP(pServerName);
}
All it does is calling FindHostIP and storing the IP in the soc kaddr_in structure pointed to by the
pSockAddr parameter. It also c onverts the port number from the portNumber parameter to network
byte order and stores it as well.
Back to the RequestHeaders func tion we call FillSoc kAddr to fill in our local sockaddr_in structure
with the right information:
// Lookup hostname and fill sockaddr_in structure:

cout << "Looking up hostname " << pServername << "... ";
FillSockAddr(&sockAddr, pServername, SERVER_PORT);
cout << "found.\n";
9. Cr e ating a s oc ke t
The next step is to c reate a socket to connec t with. This is quite simple, just call socket with the
right parameters:
// Create socket
cout << "Creating socket... ";
if ((hSocket = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_TCP)) == INVALID_SOCKET)
throw HRException("could not create socket.");
cout << "created.\n";
If socket fails, it returns INVALID_SOCKET. In that c ase, no further operations are performed and
the following cleanup c ode (after the c atc h() handler) is exec uted direc tly:
if (hSocket!=INVALID_SOCKET)
The c leanup code is always exec uted, whether an error occ urred or not. It first checks if the socket

handle wasn't INVALID_SOCKET (no socket was c reated). If it isn't, the soc ket handle is valid and
needs to be c losed.
10 . Connec ting the soc ke t
Now that we have the socket, we c an connec t it to a remote host with connect. Connec t uses the
sockaddr_in struc ture we've setup earlier with FillSoc kAddr and attempts to c onnect the given
socket with the addressed host. Here too, c onnect will block until a c onnection has been established
or something went wrong. The return value of c onnect is zero if the soc ket is c onnected, otherwise
it's SOCKET_ERROR. Before ac tually c onnecting, a message is print with the IP and port number of
the remote host. The inet_ntoafunc tion is used to c onvert the numeric IP into a string with the IP
in dotted format.
// Connect to server
cout << "Attempting to connect to " << inet_ntoa(sockAddr.sin_addr)
<< ":" << SERVER_PORT << "... ";
if (connect(hSocket, reinterpret_cast<sockaddr*>(&sockAddr), sizeof(sockAddr))!=0)
throw HRException("could not connect.");
cout << "connected.\n";
11 . Sending the r eques t
When the socket is c onnected the HTTP request can be send. It is sent in three parts, to easily
insert the hostname inside the request:
HEAD / HTTP/1.1 <crlf>

Host: www.google.com <crlf>
User-agent: HeadReqSample <crlf>
Connection: close <crlf>
<crlf>
The send calls are pretty straightforward, each call takes a buffer and sends the specified amount
of bytes from it to the remote host. Send will block until all the data has been sent, or fail and
return SOCKET_ERROR.
cout << "Sending request... ";

// send request part 1
if (send(hSocket, HEAD_REQUEST_PART1, sizeof(HEAD_REQUEST_PART1)-1, 0)==SOCKET_ERROR)
throw HRException("failed to send data.");
// send hostname
if (send(hSocket, pServername, lstrlen(pServername), 0)==SOCKET_ERROR)
// send request part 2
if (send(hSocket, HEAD_REQUEST_PART2, sizeof(HEAD_REQUEST_PART2)-1, 0)==SOCKET_ERROR)
cout << "request sent.\n";
Note that the buffer sizes specified are one less than sizeof(buffer), because we don't want to send
the null-terminator at the end of the string.
12 . Rec e iving the r e s ponse
The final step of the program before c leaning up is to rec eive data and print it until the other side
c loses the connection. The HTTP header "Connec tion: close" in our request tells the server that it

should c lose the connec tion after it has sent its response. Rec eiving data is done with
the recv func tion that rec eives the c urrently available data and puts it in a buffer. I kept the
example simple by c hoosing to just dump this output instead of actually doing something with it, so
all we have to do is keep c alling recv until the c onnection is c losed. Recv too will block if no data is
available immediately and return if some has arrived. The return value of recv is either 0,
SOCKET_ERROR or the number of bytes read. SOCKET_ERROR of c ourse indicates a soc ket error, 0
indicates closure of the connec tion. So basic ally we will loop until recv returns 0 (c onnection c losed,
done) or SOCKET_ERROR (something went wrong). This leads to the following code:
cout << "Dumping received data...\n\n";

// Loop to print all data
while(true)
{
int retval;
retval = recv(hSocket, tempBuffer, sizeof(tempBuffer)-1, 0);
if (retval==0)
{
break; // Connection has been closed
}
else if (retval==SOCKET_ERROR)
{
throw HRException("socket error while receiving.");
}
else
{
// retval is number of bytes read
// Terminate buffer with zero and print as string
tempBuffer[retval] = 0;
cout << tempBuffer;
}
}
Take a look at the c all to rec v. tempBuffer is the buffer that will rec eive the data. As the size of the
buffer, we spec ify its ac tual size minus one. This is bec ause we will put a 0 byte after the last byte
received to transform the raw data into a null terminated string we can easily print. Note that in
general, it might be perfec tly possible to have a 0 byte in the rec eived data since TCP/IP data is not
restricted to text. You'll have to treat it as binary data. However, the HTTP protocol does not allow
0 bytes in a HTTP response message (only text) so this won't happen. Even if it would happen, the
string would be printed wrong (the 0 byte would be wrongly seen as the terminator) but it isn't likely
to happen unless the HTTP server is bad (or the server is not a HTTP server). What this c omes
down to is that this is just a quic k and dirty way to print all the received data that works find for
c orrect HTTP HEAD responses. If you would ac tually do something with the data more c are needs to
be taken (for example, a 0 byte in the rec eived data may not be seen as a terminator but indicates
a bad HTTP server).
13 . Cle aning up
Finally, the socket is c losed (if it was c reated) as shown earlier and the RequestHeaders func tion will
return true or false depending on the suc c ess of the function. Bac k in the main function, winsoc k will
be c leaned up (WSACleanup) and the program quits after printing a last message.
14 . Finis hed!
That's all, the program is finished.
Download the sourc e zip file here: http://www.madwizard.org/download/winsock/headreq_cpp.zip
The zip file c ontains the sourc e files and the binary executable.

Blocking sockets: server
Now that you've seen how a blocking c lient works, it's time for the blocking server example. This
c hapter will explain how to build a simple server that ROT13 enc odes the received data and then
sends it bac k. ROT13 (rot stands for rotate) is a very simple encryption method used by Caesar.
Each c harac ter in the alphabet is replaced by the charac ter 13 positions farther (the characters
rotate 13 places). The encryption is symmetric, that is encryption works exac tly the same as
dec rypting. You c an use rot13.com if you want to play with it.
1. Program flow
The program flow is as follows:
The server creates a server socket

The server socket is bound to an address
The server socket is put into the listening state
On c onnection attempt, the c onnection is ac c epted and a c lient socket is available
The client socket is read, every byte is ROT13'd and sent back.
When the client c loses the c onnection, the program ends
2. Framework
The framework is almost the same as that of the blocking c lient example from chapter 6, only the
HRException has been renamed to ROTException and some include files were added:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <sstream>
#define WIN32_MEAN_AND_LEAN
#include <winsock2.h>
#include <windows.h>
using namespace std;
class ROTException
{
public:
ROTException() :
m_pMessage("") {}
virtual ~ROTException() {}
ROTException(const char *pMessage) :
m_pMessage(pMessage) {}
const char * what() { return m_pMessage; }
private:
const char *m_pMessage;
};

{
// main program
}
3. Constants and global data
The program uses a few c onstants for the default server port number (4444), the required winsoc k
version and rec eive buffer size.
const int REQ_WINSOCK_VER = 2; // Minimum winsock version required
const int DEFAULT_PORT = 4444;
const int TEMP_BUFFER_SIZE = 128;
Blocking sockets: server - MadWizard.org
4. T he main function
The main function too has a lot of c ommon with the blocking client from the previous c hapter:

{
int iRet = 1;
WSADATA wsaData;
cout << "Initializing winsock... ";
if (WSAStartup(MAKEWORD(REQ_WINSOCK_VER,0), &wsaData)==0)
{
// Check if major version is at least REQ_WINSOCK_VER
if (LOBYTE(wsaData.wVersion) >= REQ_WINSOCK_VER)
{
cout << "initialized.\n";
int port = DEFAULT_PORT;
if (argc > 1)
port = atoi(argv[1]);
iRet = !RunServer(port);
}
else
{
cerr << "required version not supported!";
}
cout << "Cleaning up winsock... ";

// Cleanup winsock
{
cerr << "cleanup failed!\n";
iRet = 1;
}
cout << "done.\n";
}
else
{
cerr << "startup failed!\n";
}
return iRet;
}
Winsoc k is initialized, and c leaned up again when the program is finished. In between is the server
startup c ode. The program allows an optional parameter that specifies the port the server should
run on. If it is not set, the default port number is used (4444). Finally, RunServer is c alled with the
final port number as its parameter. The RunServer function c ontains the ac tual server c ode.
5. RunSe rv e r
RunServer is the function where the server is setup and connections are acc epted. The basic
framework of this function is:
bool RunServer(int portNumber)

{
SOCKET hSocket = INVALID_SOCKET,
hClientSocket = INVALID_SOCKET;
bool bSuccess = true;
sockaddr_in sockAddr = {0};
try
{
// Create socket
cout << "Creating socket... ";
if ((hSocket = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_TCP)) == INVALID_SOCKET)
throw ROTException("could not create socket.");
cout << "created.\n";
// code goes here

}
catch(ROTException e)
{
cerr << "\nError: " << e.what() << endl;
bSuccess = false;
}
if (hSocket!=INVALID_SOCKET)
if (hClientSocket!=INVALID_SOCKET)
closesocket(hClientSocket);
return bSuccess;
}
A server soc ket is c reated in the usual way, and a variable to hold the client soc ket is reserved
too. The c lient soc ket doesn't have to be c reated, since winsoc k will do that for us later. You do
have to c lose both socket handles when you won't use them anymore though, this is done in the
c leanup part at the end of the c ode.
6. Binding the socke t
After the soc ket is created, we will bind it to an address. As I've explained in the first chapters, a
server listens on a specific port number and possibly on a spec ific IP number as well. Before you
c an let the server socket listen, it must be bound. The winsock API bind will do that for you. In
this example, the socket will be bound to the port spec ified by the portNumber parameter of
RunServer, the IP number is set to INADDR_ANY, indic ating that the server will listen on all
available IP numbers. To bind a socket with bind, you need to fill in a sockaddr_in struc ture with
the address you want the socket be bound to. Setting up this structure is done in a separate
function called SetServerSoc kAddr:
void SetServerSockAddr(sockaddr_in *pSockAddr, int portNumber)

{
// Set family, port and find IP
pSockAddr->sin_family = AF_INET;
pSockAddr->sin_port = htons(portNumber);
pSockAddr->sin_addr.S_un.S_addr = INADDR_ANY;
}
This function is c alled in RunServer in the following way:
// Bind socket
cout << "Binding socket... ";
SetServerSockAddr(&sockAddr, portNumber);
if (bind(hSocket, reinterpret_cast<sockaddr*>(&sockAddr), sizeof(sockAddr))!=0)
throw ROTException("could not bind socket.");
cout << "bound.\n";
7. Le tting the socke t liste n
If the binding suc c eeds, the socket is put into listening mode. As soon as it's in this state, any
c lient c an make a c onnection attempt to the server on the port the soc ket is bound to. Setting
the listening mode is simply done by c alling the listen winsock function:
// Put socket in listening mode

cout << "Putting socket in listening mode... ";
if (listen(hSocket, SOMAXCONN)!=0)
throw ROTException("could not put socket in listening mode.");
cout << "done.\n";
Listen has two parameters. The first is the socket you want to listen, the second is the length of
the queue of pending connec tions. Usually the default value of SOMAXCONN is okay for the latter
parameter. This value is the maximum number of c onnections that winsock will hold pending until

your program ac cepts them. You probably don't need to worry about this value most of the time.
8. Acce pting conne ctions
When the server socket is in the listening state, you need to acc ept the incoming c onnections
using the accept function. The ac c ept function bloc ks until a c onnection request c omes in,
establishes the connec tion and then returns a c lient socket handle. It is important to know that
the server socket's only purpose is now to listen for c onnections and acc ept them. As soon as you
acc ept a connection, a new socket is c reated by winsock. This socket is usually c alled the client
socket and that's the socket you will be rec eiving and sending data on. This often confuses
winsock beginners, some try to rec eive or send data on the listening soc ket, while they should use
the c lient socket.
Besides ac c epting a c onnection and returning a c lient socket handle, accept also fills in a
soc kaddr_in structure with information about the client. Our example will use this information to
print a short desc ription of the c lient that connec ted (in the form IP:port).
sockaddr_in clientSockAddr;
int clientSockSize = sizeof(clientSockAddr);
// Accept connection:
hClientSocket = accept(hSocket,
reinterpret_cast<sockaddr*>(&clientSockAddr),
&clientSockSize);
// Check if accept succeeded
if (hClientSocket==INVALID_SOCKET)
throw ROTException("accept function failed.");
cout << "accepted.\n";
// Wait for and accept a connection:

HandleConnection(hClientSocket, clientSockAddr);
The above c ode c alls acc ept, and then handles the both the client socket handle and the
soc kaddr_in structure to a new function, HandleConnec tion, which will deal with the c onnection.
After this c ode has exec uted, RunServer returns and c loses the sockets, as shown earlier.
9. Handle Conne ction
The HandleConnection function handles the c onnection. The first thing it does is showing a short
description of the client. A separate func tion (GetHostDesc ription) is used to c reate this
description.
void HandleConnection(SOCKET hClientSocket, const sockaddr_in &sockAddr)

{
// Print description (IP:port) of connected client
cout << "Connected with " << GetHostDescription(sockAddr) << ".\n";
char tempBuffer[TEMP_BUFFER_SIZE];
// todo
cout << "Connection closed.\n";
}
The GetHostDesc ription func tion looks like this:
string GetHostDescription(const sockaddr_in &sockAddr)

{
ostringstream stream;
stream << inet_ntoa(sockAddr.sin_addr) << ":" << ntohs(sockAddr.sin_port);
return stream.str();
}

We will now write the part marked as 'todo' in the above HandleConnection framework. The
function should loop on recv until the c onnection is closed (rec v returns 0). Every time data is
rec eived, it is ROT13 encoded and sent bac k to the c lient. First of all, a simple func tion is written
to deal with the ROT13 encryption:
void rot13(char *pBuffer, int size)

{
for(int i=0;i<size;i++)
{
char c = pBuffer[i];
if ((c >= 'a' && c < 'n') || (c >= 'A' && c < 'N') )
c += 13;
else if ((c>='n' && c <= 'z') || (c>='N' && c <= 'Z'))
c -= 13;
else
continue;
pBuffer[i] = c;
}
}
Then the main loop is simple. First a recv c all, that will receive data from the c lient. The rot13
function is called to enc rypt the rec eived data and finally send is used to send the encrypted data
bac k to the c lient:
// Read data
while(true)
{
int retval;
retval = recv(hClientSocket, tempBuffer, sizeof(tempBuffer), 0);
if (retval==0)
{
break; // Connection has been closed
}
else if (retval==SOCKET_ERROR)
{
throw ROTException("socket error while receiving.");
}
else
{
/* retval is the number of bytes received.
rot13 the data and send it back to the client */
rot13(tempBuffer, retval);
if (send(hClientSocket, tempBuffer, retval, 0)==SOCKET_ERROR)
throw ROTException("socket error while sending.");
}
}
10. T e sting
That's all, it should work now. To test the program, you c ould use the telnet client supplied by
windows but you have to get the settings right. If you switc h off the local echo you don't see
what you type but you do see what data you receive. This means you see the encrypted text
direc tly. However, I prefer a better c lient called PuTTY, you c an find it here. I rec ommend you to
download it as well. Compile the program, run it and you will (hopefully) see a message that the
program is waiting for a c onnection:
X:\asm\rot13server>rot13server
Initializing winsock... initialized.
Creating socket... created.
Binding socket... bound.
Putting socket in listening mode... done.
Fire up putty, and in the configuration screen, type in localhost as the hostname, 4444 as the
port number (or a different one if you choose to run the program with some other port). Set the

protocol to Raw. Finally press Open to c onnect.
You will now see putty's console window. Here you c an type text that will be send to the server.
Any data rec eived will be printed in the same window. Note: putty by default has local line editing
enabled. This means that you c an type and even edit the text you type as long as you stay on the
same line, sinc e it's not send until you press enter. If you use a c lient that immediately sends
every c harac ter, you also get a response immediately. If you have suc h a c lient you should disable
local ec ho (ie. showing the text you type), otherwise you get your text and the received text
interleaved, whic h is pretty hard to read. This is not the c ase with putty. Here's a sc reenshot of
the c onnection in action:
11. Source code
Finally, the sourc e c ode:
Download the source zip file here: http://www.madwizard.org/download/winsock/rot13server_cpp.zip
12. Conclusion
Now you've seen both a blocking client and a blocking server. Blocking soc kets are relatively easy
to use bec ause they fit in nic ely in the program flow. Still, you've only seen pretty simple examples,
since both the c lient and the server we showed did prac tic ally nothing with the data other than
print it or in this c ase, encrypt and then send it bac k. It gets harder when we have to extrac t
meaningful information from the rec eived data like when dealing with a protocol like POP3.
© 2010 by Thomas Bleeker (MadWizard)

Winsock Networking Tutorial (C++)

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1. Ne tworks and protocols

Winsock C++ programming tutorial Page 2 / 46

3. T he e the rne t inte rface stack

Winsock C++ programming tutorial Page 3 / 46

TCP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:2894 216.239.39.101:80 ESTABLISHED

Sockets and winsock

So what's a soc ket?

Winsock C++ programming tutorial Page 5 / 46

Waiting for incoming connec tions on a specified address is called listening:

5 . Conne c tions : a n ex a m ple

Here's a graphic al example of a webserver that can handle multiple c onnections.

1. The server socket is created

2. The server socket is bound

Winsock C++ programming tutorial Page 7 / 46

3. The server is listening

4. A client creates a socket

5. The client socket tries to connect

6. The server accepts the request

7. Another client connects

Winsock C++ programming tutorial Page 9 / 46

This tutorial will assume you are using winsoc k 2.

8 . W insoc k ar c hite c tur e

Basic winsock functions

1 . W SASta r tup & W SACle a nup

int WSAStartup(WORD wVersionRequested, LPWSADATA lpWSAData);

Winsock C++ programming tutorial Page 11 / 46

An example of initializing and c leaning up winsoc k:

const int iReqWinsockVer = 2; // Minimum winsock version required

SOCKET socket(int af, int type, int protocol);

Winsock C++ programming tutorial Page 12 / 46

int closesocket(SOCKET s);

The use of closesoc ket is pretty straightforward:

4 . s ock a ddr a nd byte or de r ing

Winsock C++ programming tutorial Page 13 / 46

Network byte ordering

// Convert a u_short from host to TCP/IP network byte order.

Winsock C++ programming tutorial Page 14 / 46

Here are several examples of initializing soc kaddr_in struc tures:

sockaddr_in sockAddr1, sockAddr2;

// Set address family

/* Convert port number 80 to network byte order and assign it to

int connect(SOCKET s, const struct sockaddr *name, int namelen);

Winsock C++ programming tutorial Page 15 / 46

int bind(SOCKET s, const struct sockaddr *name, int namelen);

Winsock C++ programming tutorial Page 16 / 46

int listen(SOCKET s, int backlog);

/* This code assumes the socket specified by

SOCKET accept(SOCKET s, struct sockaddr *addr, int *addrlen);

int send(SOCKET s, const char *buf, int len, int flags);

int recv(SOCKET s, char *buf, int len, int flags);

Winsock C++ programming tutorial Page 18 / 46

// Send received data back

1. T he ne e d for an I/O mode l

Winsock C++ programming tutorial Page 19 / 46

Winsock C++ programming tutorial Page 20 / 46

Winsock C++ programming tutorial Page 21 / 46

This is the timeline for a bloc king soc ket:

program: send this data

Polling is actually a very bad I/O model in windows,

Winsock C++ programming tutorial Page 22 / 46

program: send this data

And the c orresponding c onversation:

SOCKET accept(SOCKET s, struct sockaddr addr, int addrlen);

void FillSockAddr(sockaddr_in pSockAddr, const char pServerName, int portNumber)