Is network programming in C++ hard?

Question

Hello guys, I'm currently an enthusiast in C++ and is more interested in network programming. Could anyone please show me where to begin and what I should know to begin?

Answer 1

Network programming is a little harder in c++ than in c#, Python, and Java because the network programming libraries aren't part of the c++ standard. Even the newer c++ standards such as c++ 11 don't include standardized networking functions.

c++ is generally quite portable but the network programming libraries generally aren't so you have to rewrite a lot when building for Windows as apposed to Linux, Unix, or Mac.

Aside from there being a few different non-standard libraries for network programming in c++, it isn't that hard to do. I used c++ to make an HTTP server and had to write sections using winsock with others using unix libraries. It was annoying in some ways but not too bad. Some new libraries would likely be better choices for HTTP now.

To read more discussion on c++'s lack of standardization of network functionality, see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27126126/why-is-there-a-networking-library-proposal-for-c14-17

Answer 2

Thanks for the heads up. Anyway I was working on a portscan project and want to do the socket programming part without relying on third party libraries like SFML.

Answer 3

Learning Linux Socket will be the best choice. But like Josh Greig said if you want portability you have to rely of 3rd party library.