Sending messages between computers

Question

I'd like to start investigating client/server communication. I've started to look at Distributed Objects and a tad at CFNetwork. Let's just say I'm looking for something more my speed (which is slower).

I'd like to be able to send a message from one computer to another, possibly carrying a string or some other type of data. I'm thinking of building a simple student response system where one computer is acting as a server and the clients are connecting and sending data to it.

I'm looking for resources that might help me out as well as suggestions of where to start understanding the concepts involved. I've been teaching myself Objective-C and am a relative newbie to programming, so I know I have holes in my understanding.

Answer 1

"Sockets" is the canonical answer.

If you're interested, here's a great introduction to socket programming (biased toward C, but still very informative):

• Beej's Guide to Network Programming