Python Network Programming: Modules and Protocols for Effective Networking

Explore Python's capabilities for network programming with the threading module for managing multiple threads and the use of Unix and Internet domain sockets for inter-process communication. Learn about built-in modules for socket programming and application-level network protocols, including key protocols, common functions, and their associated port numbers.



Python - Network Programming

The threading module in Python's standard library allows handling multiple threads and their interaction within a single process. Communication between processes on the same machine is managed using Unix domain sockets, while processes on different machines use Internet domain sockets connected via TCP (Transmission Control Protocol).

Python Standard Library Modules for Network Programming

Python provides built-in modules for both low-level socket programming and high-level access to specific application-level network protocols:

Protocol Common Function Port No Python Module
HTTP Web pages 80 httplib, urllib, xmlrpclib
NNTP Usenet news 119 nntplib
FTP File transfers 20 ftplib, urllib
SMTP Sending email 25 smtplib
POP3 Fetching email 110 poplib
IMAP4 Fetching email 143 imaplib
Telnet Command lines 23 telnetlib
Gopher Document transfers 70 gopherlib, urllib

These modules allow Python programmers to implement client and server applications for various network protocols, enabling tasks such as web scraping, email handling, and remote server interaction.