Differences Among WIN_SOCK.DLL, WSOCKETS.DLL, and WINSOCK.DLL (98599)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft LAN Manager 2.2
  • Microsoft LAN Manager 2.2c
This article was previously published under Q98599

SUMMARY

LAN Manager comes with WIN_SOCK.DLL and WSOCKETS.DLL, which provide the interface required for various third party applications to work with Microsoft's TCP/IP stack. Windows Sockets is a multivendor application programming interface (API) standard that was developed to provide a unified standard API set for Microsoft Windows applications to interface with a specific TCP/IP implementation.

Windows Sockets Support for Microsoft LAN Manager 2.2 TCP/IP (WINSOCK.DLL) is included in the Microsoft LAN Manager version 2.2c for MS-DOS client (also called Microsoft Network Client version 2.2c). Microsoft LAN Manager version 2.2c for MS-DOS is available on the Windows NT Server CD-ROM in the CLIENTS\LANMAN\DISKS\DISK1 directory.

MORE INFORMATION

Hewlett-Packard (HP) provided the WIN_SOCK.DLL for the LAN Manager 2.1, 2.1a and 2.2 TCP/IP stack. Many third party applications use this dynamic link library (DLL) to run through the TCP/IP stack. WSOCKETS.DLL was later provided to make Windows calls look as identical as they do in MS-DOS. These two DLLs do not implement the Windows Sockets API Standard.

The Windows Sockets API Standard was developed to provide an open standard interface for network programming under Microsoft Windows. The Windows Sockets Standard implementation defines a standard interface between a Microsoft Windows application and a TCP/IP protocol implementation. An application written for this interface will run unchanged over TCP/IP implementations from many different vendors under Windows and Windows NT.

The interface is based on the popular "sockets" paradigm, which facilitates porting software from UNIX and other environments. It includes a number of Windows-specific extensions that let application writers integrate the networking portions of their applications into the message-driven Windows programming model.

The specification is intended for use with all current and future versions of Microsoft Windows, including Windows versions 3.0, 3.1 and Windows NT. Note that the Windows Sockets Standard compliant DLL will be provided by the vendor providing the TCP/IP stack. The DLL and the protocol stack implementation cannot be mixed and matched with other TCP/IP and DLL implementations. For example, you cannot use the Windows Sockets DLL provided by FTP Software with Microsoft's TCP/IP stack or vice versa.

Here are some of the vendors participating in the Windows Sockets Standard specification:

3Com Corp.
Distinct Corp.
FTP Software
Frontier Tech.
IBM
JSB Corp.
LAN Design
Microdyne
Microsoft
NetManage
Sun Microsystems
Walker Richer Quinn
Wollongong

REFERENCES

Windows Sockets 1.1 Standard Specifications
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:9/30/2003
Keywords:KB98599
©2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.