Chapter 2. Network Addressing

For a program to communicate with another program, it must have an address. In this chapter, the use of addresses, including Internet addresses, will be examined. We will introduce many of the basic concepts in the first part of this chapter. This includes the architecture of networks and the protocols that are used to communicate between the nodes.

We will address several topics, including:

• Network basics: This is where essential concepts and terms are introduced
• Using the NetworkInterface class: This provides access to system devices
• URL/UII/URN: We will discuss how these terms relate to each other
• The Inet4Address and Inet6Address classes: We will discuss how these are used
• Network properties: We will consider the properties that are configurable in Java

This will provide you with the foundation to pursue networking in more depth.