Sockets Protocol

[fatcodeguy]

Hi,

When using sockets, do the built in functions do all the handshaking/bit checking stuff? If i send an object through an object output stream, do both client and server sockets perform any checksums on transfered bits? Is all this user handled?

Thanks!!

 

[sedj]

What do you mean by "checksum" ? Checksums are generally used in files whereby a known algorithm is performed on the data, and compared with an actual checksum number, usually at the end of the file to see if the data is uncorrupted.

Socket and ServerSocket classes are just a basic implementation of the TCP/IP protocol - so yes "handshaking" as you put it is done (in as much as a network level connection between client and server is made, ready for recv() and send() methods can be used). Its up to you to "check" the data though ...

ObjectOutputStream is a wrapper around an IO stream (be that over a network socket handle, or a file handle; well, in UNIX, ALL sockets/files are file handles, but thats another story) that converts a class object into a byte array. When you use ObjectInputStream, yes, there is some checking - for example that the first 8 bytes begin with the characters CAFE.

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