If you're still interested in networking, Gaffer on Games is a great starting point. Like you I do all my programming on a Mac, and it can be difficult to find tutorials on the topic that cover both Unix and Windows. It's fairly lengthy read but: http://gafferongames.com/networking-for-game-programmers/ has plenty of source code and clear descriptions. It doesn't do in to specifics of what to send or when for fairly obvious reasons, but it'll help you solve all the basic, one-time-only problems about sending data.