The Socket classes simplify and encapsulate the low-level details of sockets.

The Socket base class provides the basic, common functionality of all sockets:

• creation of a socket (during the constructor called from create)
• closing of the socket (during the destructor),
• send and receive
• blocking socket read
• socket option setting and getting

As advanced features, a Socket can be created from existing socket id (and Address) and the low-level socket id is available.

The Socket derived classes for ServerSocket and ClientSocket address server and client specific states, respectively.

The Socket derived classes provide static create methods as well as a compilimentary method to create the Socket and connect or bind & listen for ease of use.