I've been perplexed over a .NET dilemma for the past couple months. I can't seem to find any support for standard protocols in the framework. I would imagine that support FTP and SNMP would be pretty simple to port into the main framework. However, I've found that I either have to jump through hoops and read through all kinds of RFC articles to write my own socket that complies with the protocol, or I fork out the bucks and get a component from a third party provider. Both of these solutions just don't seem feasible to me.
I know this sounds like more of a complaint rather than a question (sorry, I'm just rather frustrated), but I promise I'll get to the point:
First off, I'm curious if anyone else has found a work around for this. Either a simple way to create some classes that support these protocols, or know of an open source solution.
Second, does anyone know if someday Microsoft plans to build this functionality into the framework?
Solution: Per casperOne's answer, there is support for FTP in the base framework. I ended up biting the bullet and going with nsoftware's third party tool. Put the rather steep licensing fee on the Company P-Card and explained to the Bobs that the cost for the component will be cheaper than what they'd pay me to continue work on building another SNMP solution.
The FTP protocol can be accessed through the FtpWebRequest and FtpWebResponse classes in the System.Net namespace, and was introduced in .NET 2.0.
I also believe that you can access SNMP through the classes in the System.Management namespace, which have been around since .NET 1.0.