Chapter 1. Introduction to Network Programming

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Unless you've been living under a rock for the past 20 years , you've probably heard about something called the Internet . To most people, that word is associated with ominous things like e-mail, the World Wide Web ( WWW ), and naughty pictures. To you, the game programmer, the Internet is so much morea universe of its own where you can create games to play with people who live across town as well as those who live thousands of miles away.

The Internet is a grand thing for game programmers. It adds community interaction to games and allows players to match wits and reflexes with anyone , instead of being required to play against typically dumb and repetitive artificial intelligences . To learn how to efficiently program MUDs, however, you must first have a solid understanding of network programming. This chapter supplies that foundation. If you already have a good grasp of network programming, you may safely skip this chapter.

In this chapter, you will learn to:

Relate the history of communication networks to game programming
Understand the philosophy and layered hierarchy of Internet Protocols (IPs)
Understand the basics of common transport protocols
Find additional information on networking protocols

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