When I say non-standard libraries, I am referring to things like Boost, libCurl and anything else that may be able to do this far easier than standard C++ can. The reason for this is that I am writing an application as a piece of coursework (the class is dedicated to C++) and I am required to use only standard libraries and functions.
I am looking to download a RSS file, using a URL that the user will supply (I'm building a rudimentary RSS client), and the biggest problem I'm facing is that I'm not sure how to get the file down. Once I get past that bit, parsing it for the xml tags and displaying the content will be relatively straightforward. I've been looking around and I've only found solutions that say to use non-standard libraries, usually libCurl. If someome could just give me a quick heads up about what I should be looking at for this, then I'd be grateful.
Also, if you think you're helping me cheat, you're not. The assignment is to build an application of our choice and we're being graded on our use of the various feature of the language (it must contain so many classes, use these variables types, etc).
Check out Beej's Guide to Network Programming for a quick but excellent introduction to sockets. If you cannot use any non-standard libraries, your only option is to manually connect on port 80 and make the request yourself.
Assuming even a beginner-level knowledge of C++, that should be all you need.