Windows Sockets API (Winsock) is an Application Programming Interface (API) that is used by Windows applications to communicate with other applications over a computer network. It is a transport layer interface designed to support distributed computing on Windows operating system. Winsock was first released as an add-on to Windows for Workgroups 3.1 in 1992 and has since been included in every subsequent version of the Windows operating system.
Winsock provides an interface between an application and the underlying transport protocol (TCP/IP) of the network. It enables applications to communicate over networks, such as the Internet, using the same language protocols , regardless of the particular networks or protocol families being used. Winsock also helps isolate the applications from specific data protocol technologies, making applications more portable and flexible.
Winsock consists of a set of library files, known as DLLs, which contain the functions that the applications use to communicate with the underlying transport protocols. It also includes a set of registry entries that store its configuration information, such as the default local IP address and DNS settings. One of the main advantages of using Winsock is that applications can support many transport protocols just by linking with different DLLs.
Winsock is often used together with the Windows Socket 2 API, which provides an extended set of networking functions and a few of the functions in Winsock have been replaced with their equivalent from the Windows Socket 2 API.
Winsock is the most widely used protocol used in Microsoft Windows operating system, and has been for many years. Despite competition from other distributed computing frameworks and technologies, it remains a popular option for application developers.
