The Live Winsocket component is an ActiveX COM dll which abstracts the Microsoft® winsock api into an easy to use control. The Live Winsocket component was designed to free the developer from spending uneccessary project time learning the Winsock 2 extensive API and writing low-level C code. The Live Winsocket component allows developers to quickly implement standard IP protocols such as HTTP, SMTP, FTP as well as develop custom protocols using streaming or datagram based sockets.