Networking Enhancements

Support for selected BSD-style socket options in the java.net base classes. With JDK 1.1, Socket and ServerSocket are non-final, extendable classes. New subclasses of SocketException have been added for finer granularity in reporting and handling network errors. The class MulticastSocket moves from sun.net to java.net. Also includes general performance improvements and bug fixes.

Changes to the java.net package in JDK1.1

• Extendable Socket and ServerSocket
  The design, rationale, and how to do it.
  
• Socket Options
  New methods to support popular BSD-style options in the java base classes, (and subclasses can define their own)
  
• Socket Exceptions
  New subclasses of SocketException for finer granularity of handling network errors
  
• Miscellaneous
  Important bug fixes, new constructors, new methods, and others

Networking API Reference
(javadoc)

• java.net Package