The stark fact of the matter is that one of the core differences between platforms is how they manage, control and apply permissions to running processes. Network stacks are even more flaky since a number of platforms have multiple, different IP/network systems that can be installed.

If you want the fine-grained control you are looking for you will have to get into platform specific code. Consider writing what you are doing as a Module that internally figures out what platform you are running on and calls the proper sub-module that overrides certain methods with platform specific ones. That way you get a single interface around separate platforms.

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$you = new YOU;
honk() if $you->love(perl)

Yes, I suspected that was the only real way to do it. I just don't do C though, so it's a quite involved for me to learn. Then there would be the requirement for the user to patch the kernel(!) before using my program... not the best idea for a simple-to-use program.

Besides, I don't do C so the learning curve would be way to steep.

But thanks for putting me on the right track, I'll now start looking into setting up a proxy and hijacking the DNS.

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Jeremy
I didn't believe in evil until I dated it.