socket programming in linux

[savalan86]

Hello My Friends ...
i have a project in university , my project is a client/server system , like a chat server . in Microsoft Windows i use winsock , but in linux i dont have any experience to this issuese ...
i search in google , and now know that c++ standard dont have any library for socket (network) programming . now i want to know in linux (unix) , i must use which libraries to this issues ... . my friends , i want a reliable and popular and portable way .
because my project is a open source project and i want use common and portable libraries ...
for instance i want to know , some applications such as firefox , wget , opera , pidgin , and other ... use which libraries to this issues
really my project transmit big data's between nodes ...
thanks dears