
NETWORKING FEATURES SUMMARY FOR 1.4 RELEASE
 

IPv6

This enables using IPv6 in TCP and UDP-based applications, including  
multicast, and will support most end-user applications in use today.

Unconnected/Unbound Socket Support

Allows more flexible socket creation, binding, and connection. Enables
manipulation of socket options before connection. Example, you can now
open a socket with timeout.

There is a subclass of java.net.Socket which provides security through
encryption.  The mechanism is called the Java Secure Socket Extension
(JSSE). The <A HREF="../relativeLink/../security/jsse/JSSEUsersGuide.html"> Java
Secure Socket Extension </A> (JSSE) has been integrated into the J2SE
v 1.4 and provides encryption for data sent via sockets.

UDP Connection

The connect function with UDP will register the destination address
with the OS, which will enable asynchronous errors to be returned on
the UDP socket. The implementation and behaviour of ICMP port
unreachable varies widely between different OSes. We worked around
many of the differences and presented a uniform behaviour as much as
possible across platforms.

URI

This is a new class in Merlin. It allows URI construction and parsing
without the presence of a protocol handler, which is not possible with
the URL class. URI class is compliant with RFC 2396.

FTP Protocol Handler

Significant overhaul to make it conform as much as possible to the
current standards (RFC 1738 & 959).

JNDI DNS SP Support in InetAddress

This enables applications to configure a pure Java name service provider. In 
this case to use a DNS name service provider through JNDI.

URLEncoder and URLDecoder Improvements

The default character set is now UTF8. We also added APIs to enable 
applications to use other character encoding/decoding schemes.

TCP Out-of-Band Data

Limited support for TCP urgent data is provided in order to support
certain legacy applications. It is possible to send urgent data on
any TCP socket. However, only partial support for receiving urgent data
is provided.

SOCKS

Full V5 (RFC 1928) & V4 TCP support with autonegociation with the
proxy of which version to use.

NetworkInterface

This is a new class in Merlin. It allows enumeration of interfaces and
addresses.

Other Major Improvements

Improved Http streaming, request and response headers processing, and
error handling.
