Just use this:
// client.c
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <netdb.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>
#define PORT "3490" // the port client will be connecting to
#define MAXDATASIZE 100 // max number of bytes we can get at once
// get sockaddr, IPv4 or IPv6:
void *get_in_addr(struct sockaddr *sa)
{
if (sa->sa_family == AF_INET) {
return &(((struct sockaddr_in*)sa)->sin_addr);
}
return &(((struct sockaddr_in6*)sa)->sin6_addr);
}
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int sockfd, numbytes;
char buf[MAXDATASIZE];
struct addrinfo hints, *servinfo, *p;
int rv;
char s[INET6_ADDRSTRLEN];
if (argc != 2) {
fprintf(stderr,"usage: client hostname\n");
exit(1);
}
memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints);
hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC;
hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM;
if ((rv = getaddrinfo(argv[1], PORT, &hints, &servinfo)) != 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "getaddrinfo: %s\n", gai_strerror(rv));
return 1;
}
// loop through all the results and connect to the first we can
for(p = servinfo; p != NULL; p = p->ai_next) {
if ((sockfd = socket(p->ai_family, p->ai_socktype,
p->ai_protocol)) == -1) {
perror("client: socket");
continue;
}
if (connect(sockfd, p->ai_addr, p->ai_addrlen) == -1) {
close(sockfd);
perror("client: connect");
continue;
}
break;
}
if (p == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr, "client: failed to connect\n");
return 2;
}
inet_ntop(p->ai_family, get_in_addr((struct sockaddr *)p->ai_addr),
s, sizeof s);
printf("client: connecting to %s\n", s);
freeaddrinfo(servinfo); // all done with this structure
if ((numbytes = recv(sockfd, buf, MAXDATASIZE-1, 0)) == -1) {
perror("recv");
exit(1);
}
buf[numbytes] = '\0';
printf("client: received '%s'\n",buf);
close(sockfd);
return 0;
}
It'll only work on your home network, but
...

Pidgin seems pretty slick. I haven't used it a whole ton, but someone I worked with wrote plugins for Pidgin and the Logitech G15 keyboard so that you could temporarily change the display on the keyboard to show your Pidgin chats and reply to them without having to minimize your game.