A TCP/IP-based software application client/server communication channel construction mechanism is presented. The mechanism constructs a dedicated bi-directional data transmission for a single client/server session. The server software, running on a server host computer, provides session-based data services to one or more software clients. The client process supports one or more execution environments including: text-based scripting, Java or ActiveX components. The invoked code executing within the client computer detects the most attractive execution environment available within its execution environments, and uses the services of that execution environment client process to establish an optimal communication channel back to the server software process. Depending on the execution environment(s) available to the invoked code, the communication channel may be: (a) a content-independent, bi-directional transmission control protocol (TCP) connection, or (b) a content-dependent TCP connection, such as a TCP connection supporting only a single HTTP request/response pair.