Conclusion

Such an enormous variety of socket options and ioctl commands might seem overwhelming at first, but they do allow applications to access protocol-specific characteristics, as well as offer you the ability to fine-tune an application. In some cases, an application must use one or more socket options or ioctls in order to operate, as in the case of AppleTalk or IrDA. Even so, an application will most likely use only a few options at a time. Of course, one of the more frustrating aspects of socket options and ioctls is the fact that not all options or ioctls are available on every Windows platform, causing trouble for those applications that are attempting to be cross platform-compatible.