Windows Sockets

To take full advantage of the TCP/IP protocol you can build applications directly to the Windows Sockets API. Though you can use Visual Basic to program to the Windows Sockets API, it was designed as a C interface and therefore you are required to create all the necessary Declare statements.

The Windows Sockets specification defines a network programming interface for Microsoft Windows. It encompasses both familiar Berkeley socket-style routines and a set of Windows-specific extensions designed to allow the programmer to take advantage of the message-driven nature of Windows.

The Windows Sockets Specification is intended to provide a single API to which application developers can program and multiple network software vendors can conform.