diff --git a/src/bin/lox_client.rs b/src/bin/lox_client.rs
index 00677c1..e097afb 100644
--- a/src/bin/lox_client.rs
+++ b/src/bin/lox_client.rs
@@ -1,11 +1,26 @@
+// This seems like probably not the best way to do this, but it works.
+#[path = "../client_net.rs"]
+mod client_net;
+use crate::client_net::send;
+
 use ed25519_dalek::PublicKey;
 use lox::IssuerPubKey;
+use std::env::args;
 use std::fs::File;
 
-fn main() {
+#[tokio::main]
+async fn main() {
     let bridgedb_pubkey_filename = "bridgedb_pubkey.json";
     let lox_auth_pubkeys_filename = "lox_auth_pubkeys.json";
 
+    // TODO: make argument passing nicer (maybe flags, config files, etc.)
+
+    // network address to connect to, e.g., localhost:8080
+    let addr = args().nth(1).unwrap();
+
+    // message to send
+    let msg = args().nth(2).unwrap();
+
     // import bridgedb pubkey
     let bridgedb_pubkey_infile = File::open(bridgedb_pubkey_filename).unwrap();
     let bridgedb_pubkey: PublicKey = serde_json::from_reader(bridgedb_pubkey_infile).unwrap();
@@ -19,4 +34,8 @@ fn main() {
     let migrationkey_pub = &lox_auth_pubkeys[2];
     let reachability_pub = &lox_auth_pubkeys[3];
     let invitation_pub = &lox_auth_pubkeys[4];
+
+    let s = send(addr, msg).await;
+
+    println!("{}", s);
 }
diff --git a/src/client_net.rs b/src/client_net.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0afe21c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/client_net.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+/*! The networking methods for our client components to call. In
+particular, this file provides a send() method to handle connecting
+to a server process and sending it data. */
+
+use tokio::io::{AsyncReadExt, AsyncWriteExt};
+use tokio::net::TcpStream;
+
+use std::str;
+
+// may need to change strings to byte vectors in the future
+pub async fn send(addr: String, str: String) -> String {
+    let mut stream = TcpStream::connect(&addr)
+        .await
+        .expect("Failed to create TcpStream");
+
+    // send data
+    stream
+        .write_all(str.as_bytes())
+        .await
+        .expect("Failed to write data to stream");
+
+    // read response
+    let mut buf = vec![0; 1024];
+    let n = stream
+        .read(&mut buf)
+        .await
+        .expect("Failed to read data from socket");
+
+    if n == 0 {
+        return "".to_string();
+    }
+
+    str::from_utf8(&buf[0..n])
+        .expect("Invalid UTF-8 sequence")
+        .to_string()
+}