Networkstream.read/.beginread ,threads and things?

In my own little world were I write small server/client applications, I might only have 5 to 10 clients. I usually create a new thread which handles reading the networkstream or use networkstream.beginread (which I understand basically does the same thing). When the client disconnects or the connection is lost then the thread ends.

Now in the real world the number of clients connected to a server could be hundreds. I dont think my pc could cope with hundreds of threads:)

So to finally get to the questions, how does the real world handle gettting data from a large quantity of network clients.

I thought about creating a thread to loop through a list of clients and checking to see if data was available. If so creating a thread to read data from that networkstream untill all data was read. once all data was read the thread would end.

Or am I barking mad and up the wrong tree?

I see I have lots of views of my question but no responses.
Maybe my question is to vague or is it in the wrong category?

If so, to clairfy the question. How do I handle reading data from large quantities of client connections without using large quantities of threads?

almost same as small number of clients, handle data connections well and use resources in good way :-)

good systems will do the work if they based on correct business rules ...

Thanks freedomkw for the reply.

Thats what Im trying to do.

I have implemented my idea of keeping a list of connected clients then using a thread to loop through the list checking if data is available then creating a thread to do the actual read. Its a bit more complicated than that, but generally that is how it works. The thread dies once the data is read.

It seems to keep thread allocation at a reasonable level.

Some ideas/concepts/suggestions would be appreciated as to how it is done in the real world.

You welcome :-)

There no special rules or ways to do applications for real world .. always keep your application simple & stable also keep in mind that Software design is a process of problem solving ...

as for ideas, please send me email with details and application you doing and will try to help you