Syntax	Net.OpenConnection (netAddr : string, port : int) : int
Description	Attempts to open a connection to port specified by the port parameter on the machine specified by netAddr parameter. There must be a program listening to that port for the connection to be made. In OOT, this is done using the Net.WaitForConnection function. If successful, Net.OpenConnection returns a network stream descriptor which can be used with the put, get, read, and write statements and eof function to send and receive data to the listening program. It is also the parameter used for the Net.CloseConnection, Net.BytesAvailable, Net.CharAvailable, Net.LineAvailable, and Net.TokenAvailable functions. The netAddr parameter is a string specifying the net address of the machine to be connected to. This can either be the full hostname or the numerical address. In general, system program listen in on ports with numbers below 1024. Port numbers above 1024 are generally available for use by user created programs. The program will wait for an indeterminate amount of time to make the connection. If it fails, it will return a non-positive value.
Details	The Net module requires a TCP/IP stack to be installed and operating in order to function. It does not communicate using any other protocols It is possible for Firewalls to interfere with the actions of the Net module, preventing connections from taking place.
Example	The following program implements a "Chat" program. One user runs the program on their machine as a server, which waits for another machine to connect to it. The second user specifies the machine to connect to and then connects. The two can then type at each other. % The "Chat" program const chatPort : int := 5055 var choice : int loop put "Enter 1 to run chat server" put "Enter 2 to run chat session" put "Choice: " .. get choice exit when choice = 1 or choice = 2 end loop var netStream : int var netAddress : string if choice = 1 then netStream := Net.WaitForConnection (chatPort, netAddress) else put "Enter the address to connect to: " .. get netAddress netStream := Net.OpenConnection (netAddress, chatPort) if netStream <= 0 then put "Unable to connect to ", netAddress return end if end if Draw.Cls put "Connected to ", netAddress var localRow : int := 2 var localCol : int := 1 var remoteRow := maxrow div 2 var remoteCol : int := 1 var ch : char View.Set ("noecho") loop if hasch then ch := getchar put : netStream, ch if ch = '\n' then localRow := localRow mod (maxrow div 2) + 1 localCol := 1 Text.Locate (localRow, localCol) put "" % Clear to end of line Text.Locate (localRow, localCol) else Text.Locate (localRow, localCol) put ch .. localCol += 1 end if end if if Net.CharAvailable (netStream) then get : netStream, ch if ch = '\n' then remoteRow := remoteRow mod (maxrow div 2) + 1 + (maxrow div 2) remoteCol := 1 Text.Locate (remoteRow, remoteCol) put "" % Clear to end of line Text.Locate (remoteRow, remoteCol) else Text.Locate (remoteRow, remoteCol) put ch .. remoteCol += 1 end if end if end loop
Status	Exported qualified. This means that you can only call the function by calling Net.OpenConnection, not by calling OpenConnection.
See also	Net.WaitForConnection and Net.CloseConnection.