Other Networking Features

This chapter has touched on the most widely used networking types, but for completeness we should mention that some more specialized networking APIs are available. For example, the System.Net.Mail namespace provides types for sending email through an SMTP relay, and the related System.Net.Mime namespace supports MIME features, which are the standard way to represent attachments for emails. The System.Net.PeerToPeer namespaces provide access to the peer-to-peer networking features of Windows. (There are also WCF bindings that support this system.) The System.Net.NetworkInformation namespace provides types for discovering network status, through network interface information, and TCP/IP ICMP mechanisms such as ping. The TLS/SSL infrastructure that enables HTTPS to send encrypted data is also available for you to use directly, through the System.Net.Security namespace.