There are some threads on this forum
e.g.
I, for example, am mainly using Windows 8.1 also and have played with Eclipse and the GCC toolchain.
Others use Netbeans or just command line.
For the local server @kennethlimcp is the one to ask - he’s really into that.
And if you only want TCP/UDP you’d go for one of the SYSTEM_MODEs mentioned above - that’s a breeze too.