Socket 'netiquette'

[JohnRule at aol.com]

The subject of using sockets has come up, and I just have to jump in. There 
do not seem to be any 'rules' as far as how to use sockets, and my experience 
has been this so far:


 Opening sockets to other computers (TCP) seems to require that you close the 
socket after each send. This seems fast enough to do very quick 'open' and 
'close' calls, but it seems like a lot of overhead to me.

 Openning sockets to other devices do not seem to require this (more 
forgiving I guess). I can leave a socket open on custom device I am designing 
all day long (and all night actually), and neither the PC nor the 'box' seem 
to mind.

 It seems to take a long time to open the socket the first time, and then 
subsequent calls are very fast.

 I am hoping someone more knowledgeable than me will reprimand me for 
anything I may be doing wrong (or confirm anything I am doing right).

I am having fun!   ;-)


Thanks,
JR