This document is intended to give an introduction into the programming with RAW-sockets and the related PACKET-sockets. RAW-sockets are an additional type of Internet socket available in addition to the well known DATAGRAM- and STREAM-sockets. They do allow the user to see and manipulate the information used for transmitting the data instead of hiding these details, like it is the case with the usually used STREAM- or DATAGRAM sockets. To give the reader an introduction into the subject we will first give an overview about the different APIs provided by Windows, Linux and Unix (FreeBSD, Mac OS X) and additional libraries that can be used OS-independent. In the next section we show general problems that have to be addressed by the programmer when working with RAW-sockets. We will then provide an introduction into the steps necessary to use the APIs or libraries, which functionality the different concepts provide to the programmer and what they provide to simplify using RAW and PACKET-sockets. This section includes examples of how to use the different functions provided by the APIs. Finally in the additional material we will give some complete examples that show the concepts and can be used as a basis to write own programs. The examples are programmed in C++ and we assume that the reader has basic programming skills and networking knowledge to be able to understand the listings and content of this document.

Zugl.: Telecooperation Report No. TR19, The Technical Reports Series of the TK Research Division, TU Darmstadt ISSN 1864-0516