Simple HTTP request with C++

Question

Before you flag this for redundancy, do know that I have tried a lot of the methods posted around the web (stack overflow included) already and they each couldn't satisfy my needs. Also do note I am quite new to the programming world so excuse me for my misuse of technical terms.

Right now I am writing a C++ program that computes some data from the user's computer (IP address for example), then I send the IP address to a server that's already set up. I do this through an URL. So for example, if the server is at http://stack1234abcdz.com, and the user's IP address is 100.100.100.100 , then I would request

http://stack1234abcdz.com/?ip="100.100.100.100

I have tried libcurl and it works to some extent, but after compiling, I require 5 .dll in the same directory as the .exe in order to run it, which I cannot have due to some portability of my problem.

I have also tried some other traditional socket methods, but they require loads of libraries and SDKs, which are hard to configure and they often overwhelm a newbie like me. What I need to do is very simple (I don't even need the server to send anything back except for maybe success or failure codes), therefore I don't think I should be needing so much to do so little.

I am using Visual Studio 2006 on Windows 7 (64 bit) machine, doing C++. I cannot use newer versions because most of the other code that was given to me is in VS2006 and they do not transfer/convert well to newer versions.

I guess what I'm asking now is what I should do next. Is there a way to make the executable with libcurl to NOT use 5 .dll? I saw somewhere that I have to do some static linking stuff, but they weren't being very specific.

Or are there simpler ways to solve my problem that I overlooked? WinInet? CAtlHttpClientT? Casablanca? I'd prefer not to install and configure complex libraries that I have yet to grasp my mind around, especially not for the size of my problem...

I would appreciate any help/opinion/feedback on this matter, thanks!

Answer 1

After lots of trials and errors I solved my own problem. I used OpenURL() function in the CInternetSession class. Did a simple open in around 25 lines of code. Ran into some problems while including afxinet.h, stdafx.h, httpClient.h. That order worked for me, but might be different for other programs.