Socket Type
Type	Description
SOCK_STREAM	Transaction Control Protocol (TCP). Reliable, two-way communication in a stream. You may use this kind of socket in higher-level I/O function calls that involve the FILE* type. This protocol offers you a virtual connection to the network using ports and a dedicated client channel. After connection, the accept() call returns new socket descriptor specifically for the new client.
SOCK_DGRAM	User Datagram Protocol (UDP). Unreliable connectionless communication. Each message is independent and may be lost during transmission. This protocol virtualizes the network with ports and allows you to send and receive messages from many peers without reconnection.
SOCK_RAW	Internet Protocol (IP). Accesses the internal network interfaces and fields. If you want to create ICMP messages, you need to create a raw socket. Root access only.
SOCK_RDM	Reliably Delivered Messages (RDM). Makes sure that each packet arrives safely to the destination, but does not guarantee correct packet order. (Not yet implemented in Linux and other Unix operating systems)
SOCK_SEQPACKET	Sequenced, reliable, connection-based datagrams of fixed length. (Not yet implemented in Linux.)
SOCK_PACKET	(Physical Layer) Places the socket in promiscuous mode (if available) where it will receive any and all packets on the network. This is a Linux-only tool. Root-access only. (Deprecated—use PF_PACKET instead.)