Introduction

There are two distinct ways to integrate your VB application with the network resources available under Windows, and these two methods depend on the version of Windows you are using. If your finished application will run under a 16-bit version of Windows, then you have a hard job ahead. If you are using or delivering to a 32-bit platform (either Windows 95 or NT) your job is made considerably easier thanks to the Win32 API, which provides a usable interface between any application and the network resources.

The big difference is due to the way in which the Windows kernel manages network links. In the 32-bit version, which is a complete operating system, your copy of Windows can support multiple protocols and link to multiple servers and different operating systems. The hard work involved in managing the different data formats is entirely carried out by Windows.

If you are using a 16-bit version of Windows, there are a few basic network functions available via the API, but most of the network calls will have to be carried out in a conversation with the network operating system driver supplied by the network operating system vendor. For example, if you are linked to a Novell NetWare server, you will need to call functions in the NetWare client DLL supplied by Novell.

In this chapter, I will assume that the majority of developers will be aiming at the 32-bit version of Windows and so I will describe the Win32 API functions...