What this book covers

Chapter 1, BSD Socket Library, shows the reader how they can use the BSD Socket Library in their iOS and OS X applications. While this chapter will show them how to obtain network address information and also how to check the network status, the primary focus will be on creating client/server applications for both iOS and OS X devices. We will be creating server applications for iOS devices. This is a very important chapter for the reader because every other API is directly or indirectly based on the BSD Socket Library.

Chapter 2, Apple Low-level Networking, will show the reader how to obtain network address information but the primary focus will be on creating client/server applications for iOS and OS X devices. CFNetworking is Apple's wrapper around the BSD Socket Library. These APIs are designed for easier usage, to integrate better with run loops, and they contain a number of classes to help implement various protocols without having to know the details of those protocols.

Chapter 3, Using Libnet, shows the reader how to use libnet to retrieve network address information, perform network address resolution, and also to manually construct network packets. The chapter is written specifically for OS X. Libnet is a packet construction library that allows the developer to manually create and send out individual packets.

Chapter 4, Using Libpcap, shows how to use libpcap with an OS X application and will end by building a utility to capture packets. This chapter is written specifically for OS X. Libpcap is a packet-capture library that has been complied for virtually every Unix/Linux distribution, and this includes the OS X environment, but unfortunately it does not include iOS.

Chapter 5, Apple High-level Networking, covers some of Apple's higher-level APIs that can be used for specific purposes. This includes Synchronous and Asynchronous HTTP connections for retrieving XML feeds and also the Bluetooth connectivity between two devices.

Chapter 6, Bonjour, shows the reader how they can implement Bonjour network services in their applications. By the end of the chapter, the reader will be able to implement Bonjour services in their application.

Chapter 7, AFNetworking 2.0 Library, shows the reader how to retrieve and send text as well as data to and from remote servers by using the AFNetworking library. AFNetworking is an amazing network library for iOS and OS X. It is built on top of Apple's foundation framework and is incredibly easy to use.

Chapter 8, MKNetworkKit, shows the reader how to retrieve and send text as well as data to and from remote servers by using the MKNetworkKit library. MKNetworkKit is an awesome networking framework written in Objective-C. The framework is based on blocks and is ARC ready.