General questions about Sockets

From: Sims (siminfrance_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 07/23/04 

Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2004 11:20:44 +0100

Hi all,

I have written a small application that sends a 512k packet to computer A
and then waits for computer A to send a reply, (also 512k).
I have 3 computers, (98/ME and XPpro), to test with and so far I am happy
with the results as it does exactly what I need.

I just have a few questions that hopefully you will be able to answer.

The whole turn around process, (from A to B and waiting for B again), is
about 1 second. is that too slow or is it as expected? ( I have a default
home user network, nothing fancy).
Is a 512k package a reasonable size unlikely to return errors? How high
could I push it before I see the network slowing down and/or errors ?

To ensure that there is no data loss shall I surround my data by magic
numbers? how shall I ensure/test that there was no data loss?
I can setup any port in my registry, but what would be the 'default' one I
should offer my users?

What sort of test shall I run to be really confident that I have written a
solid piece of code?

And last but not least, I am using the class CAsyncSocket, is that the best
I can use or is there an easier/faster/more reliable way of doing things?

Many thanks for your input

Sims