ActiveSocket Toolkit Add network capabilities to any Windows or .NET application

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Visual Basic .NET IPtoCountry Sample Source Code

ActiveSocket provides an easy-to-use development interface to a variety of IP protocols. By using ActiveSocket, you can very easily create or enhance applications with network features.

ActiveSocket features the following: DNS, FTP, HTTP, HTTPs, ICMP Ping, IP-to-Country, MSN, NTP, RSH, SCP, SFTP, SNMP v1/v2c (Get, GetNext, Set), SNMP Traps, SNMP MIB, SSH, TCP, Telnet, TFTP, UDP, Telnet, Wake-On-LAN and more.

ActiveSocket can be well integrated into .NET environments.

This document describes how the ActiveSocket Toolkit can be integrated into into Visual Basic .NET projects.

Step 1: Download and install the ActiveSocket Toolkit

Download the the ActiveSocket Toolkit from the ActiveXperts Download Site and start the installation. The installation guides you through the installation process.

Step 2: Create a new Visual Basic .NET Project

Launch Microsoft Visual Studio (for instance 'Microsoft Visual Studio 2005') from the Start menu. Choose 'New' from the 'File' menu and click on 'Project'. In the 'New Project' dialog, select a Visual Studio template (for instance: 'Console Application'). Select a name for the application (for instance: 'DemoApp') and a name for the solution (for instance: 'DemoSolution'). Also, select the directory where you want to store the project (for instance: 'C:\MyProjects):

Visual Basic dotNET

(Click on the picture to enlarge)

Step 3: Refer to the ActiveSocket Library and create the objects

Now that a new project has been created, you must add a reference to the ActiveSocket Toolkit in the project to be able to use the the ActiveSocket object. To do so, choose 'Add Reference...' from the 'Project' menu. In the 'Add Reference' dialog that pops up, select the 'COM' tab and select the 'ActiveSocket 3.1 Type Library' as shown in the following picture:

Visual Basic .NET

(Click on the picture to enlarge)

Click 'OK' to close the 'Add Reference' dialog.

On top of your code, type the following line to use the ActiveSocket namespace:

Imports ASOCKETLib

In your Main function, declare and create the following object:

Public m_objIPtoCountry As IPtoCountry

m_objIPtoCountry = New IPtoCountry ()

Step 4: Find the originating country of an IP address

You can now use the Socket object to do a country lookup of an IP address..

The following code shows how to write a simple IP to Country Lookup application in Visual Basic.NET:

Imports ASOCKETLib

Public Class IPtoCountryForm
    Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form

#Region " Windows Form Designer generated code "
#End Region

    Private objIPC As IPtoCountry

    Private Sub ButtonQuery_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ButtonQuery.Click
        objIPC.LogFile = TextLogFile.Text
        objIPC.Host = TextHost.Text
        objIPC.Query()

        TextResult.Text = objIPC.LastError & " : " & objIPC.GetErrorDescription(objIPC.LastError)
        TextCountry.Text = objIPC.CountryName
        TextCountryCode.Text = objIPC.CountryCode
    End Sub

    Private Sub IPtoCountryForm_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        objIPC = New IPtoCountry()

        TextLogFile.Text = System.IO.Path.GetTempPath() & "IPtoCountryLog.txt"
    End Sub

    Private Sub ButtonView_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ButtonView.Click
        If (System.IO.File.Exists(TextLogFile.Text.ToString())) Then
            System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(TextLogFile.Text)
        End If
    End Sub
End Class

There are many working samples included with the product. You can also find them on the ActiveXperts FTP site: ftp.activexperts-labs.com/samples/network-component.

NOTE: Demo Projects are created with Microsoft Visual Studio 2002

The the ActiveSocket project ships with a set of Microsoft Visual Studio .NET samples, including samples for Microsoft Visual Basic .NET. The projects are created with Microsoft Visual Studio 2002. Users with a later version of Microsoft Visual Studio can open such a project. The Visual Studio Conversion Wizard will guide you through the process of converting the project to the version used.