In particular, the API I'm missing right now is:

GIOChannel *
g_io_channel_tcp_new (const char * host,
                      guint        port);

but I could imagine people wanting support for UDP and listening on sockets, too.

Has there been interest in adding such functionality to glib? And if so, what are the reasons for not adding it? Would it make sense to add with respect to GVFS?

I'm asking because I'm a newbie when it comes to handling networks and the support inside GNOME for network connections seems pretty nonexistant.