Windows API Reference - Network Programming

Introduction to Windows Network Programming

This section provides an overview of the APIs and technologies available for developing network-aware applications on Windows. You'll find information on socket programming, named pipes, Remote Procedure Calls (RPC), and higher-level networking protocols.

Sockets API (Winsock)

Winsock (Windows Sockets API) is the standard Windows interface for network communication. It provides a familiar Berkeley Sockets interface for developing TCP/IP and UDP applications.

Core Functions

Function	Description
`socket()`	Creates a socket.
`bind()`	Associates a local address with a socket.
`connect()`	Establishes a connection to a remote socket.
`listen()`	Puts a socket into a listening mode.
`accept()`	Accepts an incoming connection request.
`send()` / `recv()`	Sends and receives data.
`sendto()` / `recvfrom()`	Sends and receives data with datagram sockets.
`closesocket()`	Closes a socket.

Related Structures and Constants

SOCKADDR, SOCKADDR_IN: Address structures.
WSADATA: Used with WSAStartup().
Socket options (e.g., SO_REUSEADDR).

Named Pipes

Named pipes provide a mechanism for inter-process communication (IPC) on Windows, allowing processes to communicate across a network or on the same machine.

Key Functions

Function	Description
`CreateNamedPipe()`	Creates a named pipe server.
`CreateFile()`	Opens a named pipe client.
`ReadFile()` / `WriteFile()`	Reads from and writes to the pipe.
`ConnectNamedPipe()`	Waits for a client to connect.
`DisconnectNamedPipe()`	Disconnects a client.

Remote Procedure Call (RPC)

RPC allows a program to cause a procedure (subroutine) to execute in another address space (typically on another computer on a shared virtual address space) without the programmer explicitly coding the details. This is commonly used for distributed applications.

Key Components

Interface Definition Language (IDL) files for defining interfaces.
RPC runtime libraries.
midl.exe compiler.

HTTP APIs

Windows provides APIs for interacting with HTTP protocols, enabling clients to make HTTP requests and servers to handle them.

Libraries

WinHTTP: A client-side API for interacting with HTTP servers.
WinINet: Older, more comprehensive API including FTP and Gopher support.
IIS (Internet Information Services) APIs for building web servers.

DNS Client API

Provides functions for performing DNS name resolution and managing DNS client settings.

Key Functions

Function	Description
`DnsQuery_A()` / `DnsQuery_UTF8()`	Performs DNS queries.
`DnsGetHostByAddr()`	Retrieves host information by IP address.