My FIRST Network Application - HELP

[Dave Brillhart]

I would like some advice before starting my first 'network' application.

I've got some DEC5500 machines around the world and need to monitor
several aspects of their current operational state.

I thought the best way might be to setup a local daemon on each
machine. My monitoring program would send a request for information
at some interval (5 secs to 1 hour, depending on what I'm monitoring)
and receive the data from the remote machine.

I will be programming in C.  Should I  look into sockets? I've also read
a little about something called the X/Open transport interface.

ANY suggestions would help at this point.

Thanks in advance...

-- Dave Brillhart
     Harris Semiconductor
     Melbourne, FL