Network Programming in Screen Saver

Hi

I'd like to write a screen saver that is like SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) and the "searching for ever larger prime numbers" screen savers. That is to allow a large problem to be distributed to anybody who runs the screen saver.

The way I see this happening is that one computer acts as a server and gives out small tasks to clients (i.e. the screen savers) and then recieves the results.

My question is this (as I am new to network programming).

Is sockets the way to do this? If not, what "keywords" should I search on or what articles should I read?

Also, any sample code, ideas, suggestions welcome.

Thank you.

Graham

You can learn alot by studying the source code for these projects. SETI and the "prime number" search are both open-source. For SETI, see "Obtaining and Compiling Source Code" at http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/sah_source_code.php

Sockets are definitely a good approach.

Search for "distributed computing" and "grid computing". Here are decent Wiki articles: "Distributed computing" at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_computing and "Grid Computing" at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_computing

Mike

Thanks Mike - that is very useful.

Graham