Minecraft Server List Ping

// -----------------------------
    #include <cstring>
    #include <iostream>
    #include <winsock2.h>
// -----------------------------
//  0xDEAD00 = 14593280

int main(int argc, char* argv[]){

    // host
    char*          host = "mc-pl.net";
    unsigned short port = 25565;

    // WinSockAPI startup
    WSADATA     wsaData;
    SOCKADDR_IN saddr;
    SOCKET      sock;

    WSAStartup( MAKEWORD(2,2), &wsaData );
    sock = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_TCP);

    // resolve hostname
    LPHOSTENT hostEntry = gethostbyname(host);
    if ( !hostEntry ){
        unsigned int addr = inet_addr(host);
        hostEntry = gethostbyaddr( (char*)&addr, 4, AF_INET);
        if ( !hostEntry ) return 0xDEAD01;
        }   /* can't resolve hostname */


    saddr.sin_addr.S_un.S_addr
        = *((int*)*hostEntry->h_addr_list);
    saddr.sin_family = AF_INET;
    saddr.sin_port = htons(port);

    // establishing connection
    if ( connect(sock, (sockaddr*)&saddr, sizeof(sockaddr)) == SOCKET_ERROR )
        return 0xDEAD02; /* connection is not established */

    // constructing "handshake" packet
    char  handshake[] = {0x14, 0x00, 0xD2, 0x01, 0x0D,
                         '1',  '5',  '1', '.',
                         '8',  '0',  '.',
                         '1',  '0', '8', '.',
                         '1', '5',
                         0x63, 0xDD, 0x01 };
    char &hs_lenght = handshake[0];

    // constructing "request" packet
    char  request[] = {0x01, 0x00};
    char &rq_lenght = request[0];

    // server status request
    char  buffer [ 0x10000 ];
    short bytes_sent = 0;
    short bytes_readen = 0;

        /* assuming succesful sending and reciving */
    bytes_sent   += send( sock, handshake, hs_lenght+1, 0 );
    bytes_sent   += send( sock, request,   rq_lenght+1, 0 );
    bytes_readen += recv( sock, buffer,    0x10000,     0 );

    // ping pong
    char  ping[ 10 ] = { 0x09, 0x01, /* any 8 bytes */ };
    char  pong[ 10 ] ; /* pong should be same as ping */

    send( sock, ping, 10, 0 );
    recv( sock, pong, 10, 0 );

    // analising and displaying results
    char* JSON = (char*) memchr( buffer, '{', 12 );
        /* 12 = (2 * varint + PacketID) */

    if ( !memcmp( ping, pong, 10 ) )
        std::cout << JSON << '\n' << '\n'
                  << "\tping pong is:\tOK!\n"
                  << "\tbytes sent:\t"   << bytes_sent << '\n'
                  << "\tbytes readen:\t" << bytes_readen << '\n';
    else return 0xDEAD00; /* ping pong failed */

    // EOC - end of coding ;P (today's)
    closesocket(sock);
    WSACleanup();
    return 0x0;
}