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Winsock functions

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The following list provides concise descriptions of each Winsock function. For additional information on any function, click the function name.

Function Description
accept Permits an incoming connection attempt on a socket.
AcceptEx Accepts a new connection, returns the local and remote address, and receives the first block of data sent by the client application.
bind Associates a local address with a socket.
closesocket Closes an existing socket.
connect Establishes a connection to a specified socket.
ConnectEx Establishes a connection to a specified socket, and optionally sends data once the connection is established. Only supported on connection-oriented sockets.
DisconnectEx Closes a connection on a socket, and allows the socket handle to be reused.
EnumProtocols Retrieves information about a specified set of network protocols that are active on a local host.
freeaddrinfo Frees address information that the getaddrinfo function dynamically allocates in addrinfo structures.
FreeAddrInfoEx Frees address information that the GetAddrInfoEx function dynamically allocates in addrinfoex structures.
FreeAddrInfoW Frees address information that the GetAddrInfoW function dynamically allocates in addrinfoW structures.
gai_strerror Assists in printing error messages based on the EAI_* errors returned by the getaddrinfo function.
GetAcceptExSockaddrs Parses the data obtained from a call to the AcceptEx function.
GetAddressByName Queries a namespace, or a set of default namespaces, to retrieve network address information for a specified network service. This process is known as service name resolution. A network service can also use the function to obtain local address information that it can use with the bind function.
getaddrinfo Provides protocol-independent translation from an ANSI host name to an address.
GetAddrInfoEx Provides protocol-independent name resolution with additional parameters to qualify which name space providers should handle the request.
GetAddrInfoExCancel Cancels an asynchronous operation by the GetAddrInfoEx function.
GetAddrInfoExOverlappedResult Gets the return code for an OVERLAPPED structure used by an asynchronous operation for the GetAddrInfoEx function.
GetAddrInfoW Provides protocol-independent translation from a Unicode host name to an address.
gethostbyaddr Retrieves the host information corresponding to a network address.
gethostbyname Retrieves host information corresponding to a host name from a host database. Deprecated: use getaddrinfo instead.
gethostname Retrieves the standard host name for the local computer.
GetHostNameW Retrieves the standard host name for the local computer as a Unicode string.
getipv4sourcefilter Retrieves the multicast filter state for an IPv4 socket.
GetNameByType Retrieves the name of a network service for the specified service type.
getnameinfo Provides name resolution from an IPv4 or IPv6 address to an ANSI host name and from a port number to the ANSI service name.
GetNameInfoW Provides name resolution from an IPv4 or IPv6 address to a Unicode host name and from a port number to the Unicode service name.
getpeername Retrieves the address of the peer to which a socket is connected.
getprotobyname Retrieves the protocol information corresponding to a protocol name.
getprotobynumber Retrieves protocol information corresponding to a protocol number.
getservbyname Retrieves service information corresponding to a service name and protocol.
getservbyport Retrieves service information corresponding to a port and protocol.
GetService Retrieves information about a network service in the context of a set of default namespaces or a specified namespace.
getsockname Retrieves the local name for a socket.
getsockopt Retrieves a socket option.
getsourcefilter Retrieves the multicast filter state for an IPv4 or IPv6 socket.
GetTypeByName Retrieves a service type GUID for a network service specified by name.
htond Converts a double from host to TCP/IP network byte order (which is big-endian).
htonf Converts a float from host to TCP/IP network byte order (which is big-endian).
htonl Converts a u_long from host to TCP/IP network byte order (which is big-endian).
htonll Converts an unsigned __int64 from host to TCP/IP network byte order (which is big-endian).
htons Converts a u_short from host to TCP/IP network byte order (which is big-endian).
inet_addr Converts a string containing an (Ipv4) Internet Protocol dotted address into a proper address for the in_addr structure.
inet_ntoa Converts an (IPv4) Internet network address into a string in Internet standard dotted format.
InetNtop converts an IPv4 or IPv6 Internet network address into a string in Internet standard format. The ANSI version of this function is inet_ntop.
InetPton Converts an IPv4 or IPv6 Internet network address in its standard text presentation form into its numeric binary form. The ANSI version of this function is inet_pton.
ioctlsocket Controls the I/O mode of a socket.
listen Places a socket a state where it is listening for an incoming connection.
ntohd Converts an unsigned __int64 from TCP/IP network order to host byte order (which is little-endian on Intel processors) and returns a double.
ntohf Converts an unsigned __int32 from TCP/IP network order to host byte order (which is little-endian on Intel processors) and returns a float.
ntohl Converts a u_long from TCP/IP network order to host byte order (which is little-endian on Intel processors).
ntohll Converts an unsigned __int64 from TCP/IP network order to host byte order (which is little-endian on Intel processors).
ntohs Converts a u_short from TCP/IP network byte order to host byte order (which is little-endian on Intel processors).
recv Receives data from a connected or bound socket.
recvfrom Receives a datagram and stores the source address.
RIOCloseCompletionQueue Closes an existing completion queue used for I/O completion notification by send and receive requests with the Winsock registered I/O extensions.
RIOCreateCompletionQueue Creates an I/O completion queue of a specific size for use with the Winsock registered I/O extensions.
RIOCreateRequestQueue Creates a registered I/O socket descriptor using a specified socket and I/O completion queues for use with the Winsock registered I/O extensions.
RIODequeueCompletion Removes entries from an I/O completion queue for use with the Winsock registered I/O extensions.
RIODeregisterBuffer Deregisters a registered buffer used with the Winsock registered I/O extensions.
RIONotify Registers the method to use for notification behavior with an I/O completion queue for use with the Winsock registered I/O extensions.
RIOReceive Receives network data on a connected registered I/O TCP socket or a bound registered I/O UDP socket for use with the Winsock registered I/O extensions.
RIOReceiveEx Receives network data on a connected registered I/O TCP socket or a bound registered I/O UDP socket with additional options for use with the Winsock registered I/O extensions.
RIORegisterBuffer Registers a RIO_BUFFERID, a registered buffer descriptor, with a specified buffer for use with the Winsock registered I/O extensions.
RIOResizeCompletionQueue Resizes an I/O completion queue to be either larger or smaller for use with the Winsock registered I/O extensions.
RIOResizeRequestQueue Resizes a request queue to be either larger or smaller for use with the Winsock registered I/O extensions.
RIOSend Sends network data on a connected registered I/O TCP socket or a bound registered I/O UDP socket for use with the Winsock registered I/O extensions.
RIOSendEx Sends network data on a connected registered I/O TCP socket or a bound registered I/O UDP socket with additional options for use with the Winsock registered I/O extensions.
select Determines the status of one or more sockets, waiting if necessary, to perform synchronous I/O.
send Sends data on a connected socket.
sendto Sends data to a specific destination.
SetAddrInfoEx Registers a host and service name along with associated addresses with a specific namespace provider.
setipv4sourcefilter Sets the multicast filter state for an IPv4 socket.
SetService Registers or removes from the registry a network service within one or more namespaces. Can also add or remove a network service type within one or more namespaces.
SetSocketMediaStreamingMode Indicates whether the network is to be used for transferring streaming media that requires quality of service.
setsockopt Sets a socket option.
setsourcefilter Sets the multicast filter state for an IPv4 or IPv6 socket.
shutdown Disables sends or receives on a socket.
socket Creates a socket that is bound to a specific service provider.
TransmitFile Transmits file data over a connected socket handle.
TransmitPackets Transmits in-memory data or file data over a connected socket.
WSAAccept Conditionally accepts a connection based on the return value of a condition function, provides quality of service flow specifications, and allows the transfer of connection data.
WSAAddressToString Converts all components of a sockaddr structure into a human-readable string representation of the address.
WSAAsyncGetHostByAddr Asynchronously retrieves host information that corresponds to an address.
WSAAsyncGetHostByName Asynchronously retrieves host information that corresponds to a host name.
WSAAsyncGetProtoByName Asynchronously retrieves protocol information that corresponds to a protocol name.
WSAAsyncGetProtoByNumber Asynchronously retrieves protocol information that corresponds to a protocol number.
WSAAsyncGetServByName Asynchronously retrieves service information that corresponds to a service name and port.
WSAAsyncGetServByPort Asynchronously retrieves service information that corresponds to a port and protocol.
WSAAsyncSelect Requests Windows message-based notification of network events for a socket.
WSACancelAsyncRequest Cancels an incomplete asynchronous operation.
WSACleanup Terminates use of the Ws2_32.DLL.
WSACloseEvent Closes an open event object handle.
WSAConnect Establishes a connection to another socket application, exchanges connect data, and specifies needed quality of service based on the specified FLOWSPEC structure.
WSAConnectByList Establishes a connection to one out of a collection of possible endpoints represented by a set of destination addresses (host names and ports).
WSAConnectByName Establishes a connection to another socket application on a specified host and port
WSACreateEvent Creates a new event object.
WSADeleteSocketPeerTargetName Removes the association between a peer target name and an IP address for a socket.
WSADuplicateSocket Returns a structure that can be used to create a new socket descriptor for a shared socket.
WSAEnumNameSpaceProviders Retrieves information about available namespaces.
WSAEnumNameSpaceProvidersEx Retrieves information about available namespaces.
WSAEnumNetworkEvents Discovers occurrences of network events for the indicated socket, clear internal network event records, and reset event objects (optional).
WSAEnumProtocols Retrieves information about available transport protocols.
WSAEventSelect Specifies an event object to be associated with the specified set of FD_XXX network events.
__WSAFDIsSet Specifies whether a socket is included in a set of socket descriptors.
WSAGetFailConnectOnIcmpError Queries the state of the TCP_FAIL_CONNECT_ON_ICMP_ERROR socket option.
WSAGetIcmpErrorInfo Queries the source address of an ICMP error received on a TCP socket during connection setup.
WSAGetIPUserMtu Retrieves the user-defined IP layer MTU for a socket.
WSAGetLastError Returns the error status for the last operation that failed.
WSAGetOverlappedResult Retrieves the results of an overlapped operation on the specified socket.
WSAGetQOSByName Initializes a QOS structure based on a named template, or it supplies a buffer to retrieve an enumeration of the available template names.
WSAGetServiceClassInfo Retrieves the class information (schema) pertaining to a specified service class from a specified namespace provider.
WSAGetServiceClassNameByClassId Retrieves the name of the service associated with the specified type.
WSAGetUdpRecvMaxCoalescedSize Retrieves the maximum size of a received, coalesced message for a UDP socket.
WSAGetUdpSendMessageSize Retrieves the segmentation message size for a UDP socket.
WSAHtonl Converts a u_long from host byte order to network byte order.
WSAHtons Converts a u_short from host byte order to network byte order.
WSAImpersonateSocketPeer Used to impersonate the security principal corresponding to a socket peer in order to perform application-level authorization.
WSAInstallServiceClass Registers a service class schema within a namespace.
WSAIoctl Controls the mode of a socket.
WSAJoinLeaf Joins a leaf node into a multipoint session, exchanges connect data, and specifies needed quality of service based on the specified structures.
WSALookupServiceBegin Initiates a client query that is constrained by the information contained within a WSAQUERYSET structure.
WSALookupServiceEnd Frees the handle used by previous calls to WSALookupServiceBegin and WSALookupServiceNext.
WSALookupServiceNext Retrieve the requested service information.
WSANSPIoctl Developers to make I/O control calls to a registered namespace.
WSANtohl Converts a u_long from network byte order to host byte order.
WSANtohs Converts a u_short from network byte order to host byte order.
WSAPoll Determines status of one or more sockets.
WSAProviderConfigChange Notifies the application when the provider configuration is changed.
WSAQuerySocketSecurity Queries information about the security applied to a connection on a socket.
WSARecv Receives data from a connected socket.
WSARecvDisconnect Terminates reception on a socket, and retrieves the disconnect data if the socket is connection oriented.
WSARecvEx Receives data from a connected socket.
WSARecvFrom Receives a datagram and stores the source address.
LPFN_WSARECVMSG (WSARecvMsg) Receives data and optional control information from connected and unconnected sockets.
WSARemoveServiceClass Permanently removes the service class schema from the registry.
WSAResetEvent Resets the state of the specified event object to nonsignaled.
WSARevertImpersonation Terminates the impersonation of a socket peer.
WSASend Sends data on a connected socket.
WSASendDisconnect Initiates termination of the connection for the socket and sends disconnect data.
WSASendMsg Sends data and optional control information from connected and unconnected sockets.
WSASendTo Sends data to a specific destination, using overlapped I/O where applicable.
WSASetEvent Sets the state of the specified event object to signaled.
WSASetFailConnectOnIcmpError Sets the state of the TCP_FAIL_CONNECT_ON_ICMP_ERROR socket option.
WSASetIPUserMtu Sets the user-defined IP layer MTU on a socket.
WSASetLastError Sets the error code.
WSASetService Registers or removes from the registry a service instance within one or more namespaces.
WSASetSocketPeerTargetName Used to specify the peer target name (SPN) that corresponds to a peer IP address. This target name is meant to be specified by client applications to securely identify the peer that should be authenticated.
WSASetSocketSecurity Enables and applies security for a socket.
WSASetUdpRecvMaxCoalescedSize Sets the maximum size of a coalesced message set on a UDP socket.
WSASetUdpSendMessageSize Sets the segmentation message size on a UDP socket.
WSASocket Creates a socket that is bound to a specific transport-service provider.
WSAStartup Initiates use of WS2_32.DLL by a process.
WSAStringToAddress Converts a numeric string to a sockaddr structure.
WSAWaitForMultipleEvents Returns either when one or all of the specified event objects are in the signaled state, or when the time-out interval expires.