Winsock - The History Of Winsock

Windows Sockets API, or Winsock, as the name was later shortened to

, is a technical specification that lays out the details of how Microsoft's Windows operating system network software should work with other applications to get access to network services. The main network service that it lays out technical specifications for is TCP/IP, which is the name commonly used for the Internet Protocol Suite. The IPS is a group of communication protocols that are used with networks such as the Internet, and other similar network interfaces. The technical specifications that Winsock uses allow for communication between TCP/IP clients, such as an FTP program or a web browser that runs on a Windows system, and the TCP/IP protocol stack.

In the early years, well before they had Winsock, Microsoft's operating systems, including Windows, as well as MS-DOS, had network communications that were very limited. The capabilities they did have were mostly based upon NetBIOS or NetBEUI. Early on, Microsoft did not have support for the TCP/IP protocol stack. Many commercial vendors, as well as university groups like the PC/IP group from MIT and Sun Microsystems, came up with TCP/IP products that were used with MS-DOS, usually as a hardware and software combination package. When Microsoft came out with Windows 2.0, other companies such as NetManage and Distinct joined forces with the vendors to offer TCP/IP for Windows.

The main concern and major disadvantage that was hurting all of these vendors was that each one had their own Application Programming Interface (API) and without some kind of standard for their programming model, it was hard to talk independent software programmers into creating applications for networking purposes that would work with vendor's TCP/IP interfaces. In addition to all of these problems, end users were concerned about being tied up with only a single vendor. The need for standardized software was becoming more and more evident. This was what put the Windows Socket API (Winsock) wheels into motion.

A man by the name of Martin Hall, who worked for JSB Software, originally proposed the Winsock concept as a Birds of a Feather, an informal computing discussion, conversation on the CompuServe bulletin board system around the end of 1991. Five individuals, including Hall, Mark Towfiq, Geoff Arnold, Henry Sanders, and J. Allard, of Microsoft, took part in the discussions. They decided that the specification would be copyrighted by the five of them to avoid any IP, copyright, or anti-trust issues that may arise.

by: Troy Truman

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