Visual Basic: Winsock Control

  • Article

Winsock Control

See Also    Example    Properties    Methods    Events

The Winsock control, invisible to the user, provides easy access to TCP and UDP network services. It can be used by Microsoft Access, Visual Basic, Visual C++, or Visual FoxPro developers. To write client or server applications you do not need to understand the details of TCP or to call low level Winsock APIs. By setting properties and invoking methods of the control, you can easily connect to a remote machine and exchange data in both directions.

TCP Basics

The Transfer Control Protocol allows you to create and maintain a connection to a remote computer. Using the connection, both computers can stream data between themselves.

If you are creating a client application, you must know the server computer's name or IP address (RemoteHost property), as well as the port (RemotePort property) on which it will be "listening." Then invoke the Connect method.

If you are creating a server application, set a port (LocalPort property) on which to listen, and invoke the Listen method. When the client computer requests a connection, the ConnectionRequest event will occur. To complete the connection, invoke the Accept method within the ConnectionRequest event.

Once a connection has been made, either computer can send and receive data. To send data, invoke the SendData method. Whenever data is received, the DataArrival event occurs. Invoke the GetData method within the DataArrival event to retrieve the data.

UDP Basics

The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is a connectionless protocol. Unlike TCP operations, computers do not establish a connection. Also, a UDP application can be either a client or a server.

To transmit data, first set the client computer's LocalPort property. The server computer then needs only to set the RemoteHost to the Internet address of the client computer, and****the RemotePort property to the same port as the client computer's LocalPort property, and invoke the SendData method to begin sending messages. The client computer then uses the GetData method within the DataArrival event to retrieve the sent messages.