If you want a book on network programming, there are a few classic choices. [Comer’s] TCP/IP books are a great reference but sometimes is too low level. “Unix Networking Programming&#82… ...

As ubiquitous as TCP/IP is, network programming interfaces have hardly advanced since the invention of the “Berkeley sockets” low-level networking API.

In .NET 2.0, the System.Net.Sockets.Socket class now includes a SendTimeout parameter, so you could easily handle it if you upgraded. If you want to do it in 1.1, then you will probably have to ...