Glossary of network terms

bind:

Binding to a socket usually applies to a server which binds to a known or specified port. To bind to a port effectively means that the software is listening for connections on that port.

C

client:

Clients are programs which often have "special features". They are the user end of the client-server interface. e.g. ftp is the client, ftpd is the server
A client could be something as simple as 'telnet', it depends whether the server requires a special type of connection such as from a reserved port number (less than 1024).

D

datagram:

connectionless, unreliable messages of a fixed, typically small maximum length

E

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M

master socket:

MSG_PEEK:

any data returned to the user still is treated as if it had not been read

MSG_OOB (out-of-band):

out-of-band data is marked "urgent" and so has a higher priority than normal data

N

non-blocking:

by default, sockets are blocking - this means that they stop the function from returning until all data has been transfered. With multiple connections which may or may not be transmitting data to a server, this would not be very good as connections may have to wait to transmit their data.

O

P

port:

socket descriptor:

similar to a file descriptor, but linked to a socket instead of a file, can be used in low level commands such as read() and write()

SO_REUSEADDR:

allows multiple SOCK_STREAM sockets to be bound to the same local address, as long as all existing sockets at the desired address are in a connected state before the bind() is done on the new socket.

stream:

sequenced, reliable, two-way, connection-based byte streams

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