SFS is a socket server based in the Java enviroment built to serve real-time data to its clients. It is not a development program in itself, but rather a tool used by the Flash community. It is "free," however, it will only allow 20 clients at once to be connected. You will also need a place to host it. You could host it on a PC on a broadband connection, but I have tried that and only get about 3-6 packets a second from the server. If you really wanted to use it, you would need a direct connection to the internet, about $1000 a month, or a dedicated host, about $100 a month.
Torque is an ok engine, but I'd recommend just jumping in to OOP for beginners.
