Network Application Program Interfaces

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An application program interface (API) is the set of routines that an application program uses to request and carry out lower level services performed by the operating system. The two network APIs used by Windows NT to establish communications sessions and to transfer data to other computers in a network are as follows:

• NetBIOS—Network Basic Input/Output System. The original network API supported by Microsoft. NetBIOS was originally developed by IBM.
• Windows Socket—also called WinSock. A newer network API originally developed by the Unix community. It is now also supported by Microsoft.