Thread: TCP/IP listener in ASP .NET

I'm trying to develop a web application for a system consisting of several hardware devices, which will connect to a specific IP and port of a server to send some measuring data (plain text). This data will be stored in a SQL Server database in the server. Then, the users will connect to this server using a browser to view the stored data.

I will use ASP .NET (C#) for developing the web application for the users to access the stored data in the database (it's a standard web application with database access to retrieve and show information).

I don't know what is the best way to develop the application that will act as a TCP/IP listener to receive the hardware devices data, since it must run on the same server that stores the SQL Server database.

Could someone give me some advice or suggestion about how to develop the server listener application? I think a web service is not a good solution, because the client (hardware device) won't be able to use this technology (it will send a fixed data buffer after its connection request has been accepted).

Thanks in advance.

Windows service could be a solution. I think I could use sockets, multithreading and a lot of code for handling the details of concurrency and making the application secure from attacks.

But, I thought that some of the new technologies of Visual Studio could be useful for this kind of application (WCF, .Net remoting or similar). Do you know if exists an alternative that could make easier this development?

In case of using a windows service, would be C# .Net suitable for this development or should I use a lowest level language as VC++?

Thanks for your help.