Windows Network API Reference

Explore the comprehensive set of APIs available for developing network-aware applications and services on Windows.

Sockets

The Winsock (Windows Sockets) API provides a standard interface for network communication. It supports various protocols like TCP and UDP for both connection-oriented and connectionless communication.

`socket()`

Creates a socket that is bound to a specific transport service provider.

SOCKET socket(
  int af,
  int type,
  int protocol
);

`bind()`

Associates a local name with a socket.

int bind(
  SOCKET s,
  const struct sockaddr *name,
  int namelen
);

`connect()`

Establishes a connection to a remote socket.

int connect(
  SOCKET s,
  const struct sockaddr *name,
  int namelen
);

`send()` / `recv()`

Sends and receives data on a socket.

int send(
  SOCKET s,
  const char *buf,
  int len,
  int flags
);
int recv(
  SOCKET s,
  char *buf,
  int len,
  int flags
);

Protocol Drivers

APIs for interacting with network protocol drivers, enabling lower-level network operations.

NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification)

Provides a standardized interface for network adapter drivers to communicate with the transport protocols.

Remote Procedure Call (RPC)

RPC allows a program to cause a procedure (subroutine) to execute in another address space (typically on another machine) without the programmer explicitly coding the details of that remote interaction.

`RpcBindingCreateNF()`

Creates a binding handle.

Network Management

APIs for managing network configurations and devices.

SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) API

Provides functionality to manage network devices.

IP Helper API

A set of functions that provide access to network configuration information and enable modification of this configuration.

`GetAdaptersInfo()`

Retrieves detailed information about the network adapters installed on the local computer.

DWORD GetAdaptersInfo(
  PIP_ADAPTER_INFO AdapterInfo,
  PULONG             Size
);

`GetIpNetTable()`

Retrieves the local IP routing table.

Winsock Kernel (WSK)

The Winsock Kernel (WSK) is a kernel-mode programming interface that allows user-mode and kernel-mode applications to access Winsock services.

`WskSocket()`

Creates a WSK socket.

DNS API

APIs for performing DNS queries and managing DNS settings.

`DnsQuery_A()`

Queries DNS for a specified record type.

DNS_STATUS DnsQuery_A(
  PCSTR              pszName,
  WORD               wType,
  DWORD              Options,
  PVOID              pServerList,
  PDNS_RECORD        *ppQueryResults,
  PVOID              pSpare
);