Communications 1 min read

Winsock

Last Updated May 24, 2021 1:59 pm

Short for Windows Socket, an API for developing Windows programs that can communicate with other machines via the TCP/IP protocol. Windows 95 and Windows NT comes with Dynamic Link Library (DLL) called winsock.dll that implements the API and acts as the glue between Windows programs and TCP/IP connections.

In addition to the Microsoft version of winsock.dll, there are other freeware and shareware versions of winsock.dll. However, there is no official standard for the Winsock API, so each implementation differs in minor ways.

Was this Article helpful? Yes No

Thank you for your feedback. 0% 0%

About the author

Webopedia Staff

Since 1995, more than 100 tech experts and researchers have kept Webopedia’s definitions, articles, and study guides up to date. For more information on current editorial staff, please visit our About page.