SocketTools Secure .NET Edition

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Add secure internet communications to your .NET applications. SocketTools Secure .NET Edition is a collection of managed code classes, designed to simplify the integration of Internet functionality into applications built using the Visual Studio development platform. It is ideal for the Visual Basic or C# developer who requires the ease of use and rapid development features of a component, without the complexities of the native socket classes and without requiring in-depth knowledge of how the various Internet protocols are implemented. SocketTools Secure .NET includes nineteen class libraries and components. Included are classes for Domain Name Services (DNS), File Encoding and Compression, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Finger Protocol, Gopher Protocol, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), Internet Message Access Protocol, Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME), Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP), Post Office Protocol (POP), Remote Access Services (RAS), Remote Command Protocol, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Telnet Protocol, Terminal Emulation, Time Protocol, Whois Protocol and Windows Sockets.

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SocketTools Secure .NET Edition V5.0 SP3

Our prices include ComponentSource technical support and, for most downloadable products, an online backup and a FREE upgrade to the new version if it is released within 30 days of your purchase.  All sales are made on our standard Terms and Conditions and subject to our Return Policy. Please contact us if you require any licensing option not listed above including volume licensing and previous versions.

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What's new in SocketTools Secure .NET Edition V5.0 SP3?

• Service Pack 3 has been released and offers developers new features, improved performance and full compatibility with the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 operating systems.

The following protocols are supported by the SocketTools Secure .NET Edition:

• Domain Name Services (DNS)
• File Encoding and Compression
• File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
• Finger Protocol
• Gopher Protocol
• Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
• Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)
• Internet Message Access Protocol
• Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)
• Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)
• Post Office Protocol (POP)
• Remote Access Services (RAS)
• Remote Command Protocol
• Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
• Telnet Protocol
• Terminal Emulation
• Time Protocol
• Whois Protocol
• Windows Sockets (SocketWrench)

Domain Name Services

Using this component, you can perform standard queries against a nameserver, with the enhancements such the ability to enumerate all mail exchange (MX) records sorted in priority order. The component also supports addition record types such as SOA, HINFO and TXT records.

File Encoding and Compression

Using this component, you can encode and decode files using the standard encoding methods such as Base64, Quoted-Printable and Uuencoding. The class also now supports yEnc file encoding, as well as support for URL, UTF-7 and UTF-8 text encoding. Additional data compression options have been added as well, including the ability to select the algorithm and level of compression. 

File Transfer Protocol

The class provides both high level functions that enable you to upload or download a file in a single function call, as well as lower level remote file I/O functions for direct control over the transfer by your application. New features include direct transfers to and from memory buffers as well as files, the ability to control what features are enabled for a specific server, and a variety of new functions such as the ability to change a file's modification time and permissions. 

Finger Protocol

The Finger protocol is used to return information about a user on a remote server, as well as general information about the server itself. The component provides an interface for connecting to a server, requesting information about a user and returning that information to the program. You can use this component to obtain information about a user on a remote host, such as the last time they've logged in, whether or not they have any unread mail and what projects they're currently working on. The Finger protocol can also be used to list the users on a system and validate that a user is active.

Gopher Protocol

The Gopher protocol is a document retrieval protocol that pre-dates the Hypertext Transfer Protocol. The advantage that Gopher offers is that it is a simpler, lightweight protocol that doesn’t have the inherent overhead and complexity of a typical HTTP server. It is most commonly used with internal corporate networks to provide access to documents, although its use is less common today than it was several years ago. The component has been improved to support more document types, along with added functions to make it easier to process an item index or directory. The component also supports retrieving documents with a single function call, storing the contents in memory or in a file on the local system.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol

The component has been significantly enhanced to make accessing resources over the World Wide Web even easier and faster than before. Download the entire contents of a document and store it in memory using a single function call. Post data to a server and the output of the script is returned to your program in memory without requiring that you manually read and process the data stream. With full support for HTTP 1.1, including persistent connections and chunked data processing, the class handles all of the complex protocol details. The Secure Enterprise Edition has full support for secure SSL/TLS connections to a web server, including support for client certificates.

Internet Control Message Protocol

The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is commonly used to determine if a remote host is reachable and how packets of data are routed to that system. Users are most familiar with this protocol as it is implemented in the ping and tracert command line utilities. The Ping command is used to check if a system is reachable and the amount of time that it takes for a packet of data to make a round trip from the local system, to the remote host and then back again. The Tracert command is used to trace the route that a packet of data takes from the local system to the remote host, and can be used to identify potential problems with overall throughput and latency. The component can be used to build in this type of functionality in your own applications, giving you the ability to send and receive ICMP echo datagrams in order to perform your own analysis. New features include a simplified interface for sending ICMP datagrams, as well as the ability to generate a complex traceroute in a single function call.

Internet Message Access Protocol

The Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is an application protocol which is used to access a user’s e-mail messages which are stored on a mail server. However, unlike the Post Office Protocol (POP) where messages are downloaded and processed on the local system, the messages on an IMAP server are retained on the server and processed remotely. The IMAP component enables you to manage those messages on a server, creating new mailboxes, moving message and deleting messages and previewing sections of a message. This component integrates with the Mail Message (MIME) component to make it easy to process those messages and present them to a user.

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions

The Mail Message component enables your applications to create email messages which conform to the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) standard. Using the component, you can easily create complex multipart messages, including those with alternative content formats, such as plain text and styled HTML in the same message. You can also attach files, extract attachments, create custom headers, export messages and perform a variety of other message related functions.  The Mail Message component integrates with the IMAP, NNTP, POP3 and SMTP libraries to provide the services they need to process mail messages and news articles. New features include the ability to create multipart alternative content messages in a single function call, expanded support for encoded headers and nested multipart messages and improved performance when handling large file attachments.

Network News Transfer Protocol

The Network News Transfer Protocol is used with servers that provide news services. This is similar in functionality to bulletin boards or message boards, where topics are organized hierarchically into groups, called newsgroups. Users can browse and search for messages, called news articles, which have been posted by other users. There have been significant improvements to this component, enabling applications to easily list available newsgroups and articles, the ability to download complete articles in a single function call and tighter integration with the Mail Message component. 

Post Office Protocol

The Post Office Protocol (POP3) provides access to a user’s new e-mail messages on a mail server. Functions are provided for listing available messages and then retrieving those messages, storing them either in files or in memory. Once a user’s messages have been downloaded to the local system, they are typically removed from the server. This is the most popular e-mail protocol used by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and the SocketTools component provides a complete interface for managing a user’s mailbox. This component is typically used in conjunction with the Mail Message component, which is used to process the messages that are retrieved from the server.

Remote Access Services (RAS)

Remote Access Services (RAS) enables an application to establish a dial-up Internet connection with a service provider, typically using an analog modem. The standard SLIP and PPP protocols are supported, along with a variety of configuration options which can be used to specify how the session is created. You can use existing dial-up networking entries as well as create new ones and even monitor active connections created by other applications. For programs which need to support dial-up as well as broadband connections, RAS provides seamless integration with the standard Windows dial-up networking services.

Remote Command Protocol

The SocketTools component supports both the rcmd and rshell remote execution protocols and provides functions which can be used to search the data stream for specific sequences of characters. This makes it extremely easy to write Windows applications which serve as light-weight client interfaces to commands being executed on a UNIX server or another Windows system. The component can also be used to establish a remote terminal session using the rlogin protocol, which is similar to how the Telnet protocol functions.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

The SocketTools component can be used to deliver mail through a wide variety of systems, from standard UNIX based mail servers to Windows systems running Exchange or Lotus Notes and Domino. Using the SocketTools component, messages can be delivered directly to the recipient, or they can be routed through a relay server, such as an Internet Service Provider’s mail system. The Mail Message component can be integrated with this component in order to provide an extremely simple, yet flexible interface for composing and delivering mail messages.

Telnet Protocol

The Telnet component provides an interface for establishing the connection, negotiating certain options (such as whether characters will be echoed back to the client) and handling the standard I/O functions needed by the program. The component also provides functions that enable a program to easily scan the data stream for specific sequences of characters, making it very simple to write light-weight client interfaces to applications running on the server. This component can be combined with the Terminal Emulation component to provide complete terminal emulation services for a standard ANSI or DEC-VT220 terminal.

Terminal Emulation

This component can be used in conjunction with the Remote Command or Telnet Protocol component to provide terminal emulation services for an application, or it can be used independently. For example, this component could also be used to provide emulation services for a program that provides serial modem connections to a server.

Time Protocol

The Time Protocol component provides an interface for synchronizing the local system’s time and date with that of a remote server. The component enables developers to query a server for the current time and then update the system clock if desired.

Whois Protocol

The WhoIs protocol component provides an interface for requesting information about an Internet domain name. When a domain name is registered, the organization that registers the domain must provide certain contact information along with technical information such as the primary name servers for that domain. The WhoIs protocol enables an application to query a server that provides that registration information. The SocketTools component provides an interface for requesting that information and returning it to the program so that it can be displayed or processed.

Windows Sockets (SocketWrench)

At the core of all of the SocketTools networking libraries is the Socket interface which provides a low level method for sending and receiving data over the Internet or a local intranet. The SocketWrench component provides a simpler interface to the class library, without sacrificing features or functionality. Using SocketWrench, you can easily create client and server applications while avoiding many of the mundane tasks and common problems that programmers face when developing Internet applications. The .NET Edition also seamlessly integrates support for SSL and TLS, allowing you to implement secure client and server applications without requiring that you use additional classes, third-party libraries or understand how to use Microsoft’s cryptography libraries.