I wrote:

*cross-posting to the more populated C# language group, in hope of a
response from there*

Well, I did a Google search and a Google Groups search, and it seems that
there are quite a few people who think this is okay (in Winsock, at least).

Also, the program listed at the end of this post works as expected.

So I'm going to do this and cross my fingers.

Program:

using System;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Threading;
using System.Text;

class Test {
 static Socket socket;

 [STAThread]
 static void Main(string[] args) {
   socket = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream,
     ProtocolType.Tcp);
   socket.Connect(new IPEndPoint(Dns.Resolve("google.com").AddressList[0],
     80));

   new Thread(new ThreadStart(Receive)).Start();

   Thread.Sleep(1000);

   string httpRequest = "GET /non-existant-URI HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n";
   socket.Send(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(httpRequest));

   Console.Write("Request sent.\n\n");
   Console.Read();
 }

 static void Receive() {
   Console.Write("Ready to receive.\n\n");

   byte[] buffer = new byte[99999];
   socket.Receive(buffer);

   Console.WriteLine(
     "Reponse received!\n\n"     +
     "First few characters:\n\n" +
     "{0}",
     Encoding.ASCII.GetString(buffer).Substring(0, 100));

   socket.Shutdown(SocketShutdown.Both);
   socket.Close();
 }
}