CSC 122: Networking Programming using Python

Network Programming using Python

• A hostname is a label assigned to a device connected to a computer network, making it easily identifiable and distinguishable from others on the network.
• A domain name is the human-readable version of an IP address, which is a numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network.

Socket Library Functions

• gethostbyname() is a function that obtains the IP address associated with a given hostname, useful for converting domain names to IP addresses for network communication.
• gethostbyaddr(ip_address) performs a reverse DNS lookup to obtain the hostname associated with a given IP address.
• getservbyname() retrieves information about a network service based on its name and protocol, useful for obtaining the port number associated with a specific service name.
• getservbyport() is the inverse of getservbyname(), used to retrieve the name of a network service based on its port number and protocol.

Creating a Socket

• A socket object represents the hostname and port number, created using a constructor method.
• Binding a socket associates it with a specific network address and port number, allowing it to listen for incoming connections or specify the local endpoint for outgoing connections.

UDP Socket Functions

• The recvfrom() function is used to receive data from a UDP socket, specifically designed for UDP sockets due to its connectionless protocol.
• The syntax of the recvfrom() function allows it to receive data from different source addresses.