I was just wondering how I would go about integrating encryption in a chat program (I'm not talking about chat programs in existence i.e. AIM), I want to build my own using c++ and sockets. I don't have very much experience in coding socket connections and win API, but I still want to know how to go about making the chat program somewhat "secure". Here is basically what I want the program to be capable of doing:

1. a user on one end types his/her message.
2. the user hits the "send" button, which encrypts the cleartext.
3. the cyphertext is transmitted to the chat program on the other end to the listening socket.
4. upon receival of the cyphertext, the program decrypts it to cleartext so the user on the other end can read it (obviously).

It sounds really complicated (atleast to me), and I'm not planning on having it done anytime soon. It is something I want to do in the future, so as of now, I'm learning as much as I can. So if any of you can help or point me in the right direction, I would be grateful.

I am going to try to write a chat application without encryption first, then when I get better, I can integrate some form of encryption to it.

Thanks for your help

-Nitro-