Appendix B -- IP Helper Functions

This appendix will introduce you to some new API functions that allow you to query and manage IP protocol characteristics on your computer. The functions are designed to help you programmatically achieve the functionality that is available in the following standard IP utilities:

• Ipconfig.exe (or Winipcfg.exe on Microsoft Windows 95) Displays IP configuration information and permits you to release and renew DHCP-assigned IP addresses.
• Netstat.exe Displays the TCP connection table, the UDP listener table, and the IP protocol statistics.
• Route.exe Displays and manipulates network routing tables.
• Arp.exe Displays and modifies the IP-to-physical address translation tables used by the address resolution protocol (ARP).

The functions described in this appendix are available mainly on Windows 98 and Windows 2000. Several are also available on Windows NT 4 Service Pack 4 or later; however, none are available on Windows 95. We will point out platform specifics as we discuss each function. The prototypes for all the functions described in this appendix are defined in Iphlpapi.h. When you build your application, you must link it to the library file Iphlpapi.lib.