8.3. Mailslots

One of the simplest ways to perform network communications in Windows is through a mailslot. Mailslots provide a one-directional communication path from the sender to one or more recipients on the same network segment. You use mailslots when you do not particularly care whether or not the data actually arrives, or when you want to send one piece of data to many recipients at once.

For example, say that you want to create a status-board application. You have probably seen a status board in many office environments; they are particularly common in large real-estate or law firms. The board lists everyone in the office and whether each person is currently "in" or "out." If the person is out, the board normally says where the person ...

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