Product Reviews
.NET does Internet
IP*Works! relieves you from writing grungy code
I reviewed the VB6 edition of this package in the last
issue of Developer Central. The new .NET edition has the same features:
it's still designed to provide you with implementations of all the major
Internet protocols that you're likely to need. This includes old favorites
like finger, ping, and whois; more complex protocols including IMAP, SNMP,
and LDAP; and even generic TCP/IP and UDP clients and servers. This version
even includes a SAX2-compliant XML parser and a SOAP client, so you can
build applications that play with new stuff. In all, there are 34 components
here, covering the full range of protocols.
Of interest is the way that /n got this edition together: they wrote
a Java to C# translation tool and moved over their existing Java codebase.
The resulting controls work quite well and integrate smoothly into Visual
Studio .NET, right down to (optionally) occupying their own tab in the
Toolbox.
Could you do the same work without these controls? Sure; the .NET Framework
includes TCPListener, TCPClient, and UDPClient classes that you can hook
up to pretty much any Internet protocol. Do you want to do it that way?
Not unless you really enjoy writing a bunch of extra code. Personally,
I'll be happy to let the /n folks do all that work for me. This is a solid
set of controls that hits its intended target well.
About the Author
Mike Gunderloy, MCSE, MCSD, MCDBA, is a former MCP columnist and the author of numerous development books.