Verkkosäie

Verkkosäie, known in English as a network thread or network socket, is a fundamental concept in computer networking. It represents an endpoint for sending or receiving data across a computer network. Essentially, it's a combination of an IP address and a port number that uniquely identifies a process on a specific machine. When two applications communicate over a network, they establish a connection between two such endpoints.

The primary function of a verkkosäie is to facilitate communication between processes running on different machines or even on the same machine. This communication is typically handled by the operating system's network stack. Developers use network socket APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) provided by the operating system to create, configure, and manage these verkkosäie. Common operations include binding a socket to a specific port, listening for incoming connections, accepting connections from remote hosts, sending data, and receiving data.

There are two main types of network sockets: stream sockets and datagram sockets. Stream sockets, like those used in TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), provide a reliable, ordered, and error-checked stream of data. They ensure that data arrives in the correct sequence and without loss. Datagram sockets, on the other hand, are used with UDP (User Datagram Protocol) and offer a simpler, faster, but less reliable way to send data. Datagrams are sent as independent packets and may arrive out of order or be lost, making them suitable for applications where speed is prioritized over absolute reliability, such as streaming audio or video.