Microsoft Win32 Internet Functions Overview


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Microsoft Win32 Internet Functions Overview

The Microsoft® Win32® Internet (WinInet) API provides stand-alone applications with easy access to standard Internet protocols such as Gopher, FTP, and HTTP, abstracting the protocols into a high-level interface that is familiar to Win32 developers. This section covers how to use the Win32 Internet API in an application. See the Microsoft Win32 Internet Functions Reference for descriptions of the individual functions.
Introduction

Establishing a Dial-Up Connection to the Internet

Enabling Internet Functionality

Common Functions

Handling Uniform Resource Locators

Handling Authentication

FTP Sessions

Gopher Sessions

HTTP Sessions

Cookie Functions

Caching

Appendix A: HINTERNET Handles

Appendix B: Using Buffers

Appendix C: Handling Errors

Introduction

The following sections contain an overview of the Microsoft® Win32® Internet (WinInet) functions, which provide developers with a set of functions to interact with Gopher, FTP, and HTTP protocols. As the standards evolve, the Win32 Internet functions will handle the changes in underlying protocols, allowing the functions to maintain a consistent behavior. This overview describes how to use these functions to access the vast resources on the Internet.
The Win32 Internet functions do require an understanding of C/C++, a familiarity with Win32 programming, and a basic understanding of the FTP, Gopher, and HTTP protocols.
Internet Protocols

The three major protocols used on the Internet are the FTP, Gopher, and HTTP protocols.
For the more information on these protocols, see the Request For Comments (RFC) documents that cover FTP, Gopher, and HTTP specifications. The following documents on these protocols can be found on the Internet:
RFC 959, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), can be found at http://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc959.txt.
RFC 1436, The Internet Gopher Protocol, can be found at http://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1436.txt.
RFC 1945, Hypertext Transfer Protocol - HTTP/1.0, can be found at http://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1945.txt.
RFC 2068, Hypertext Transfer Protocol - HTTP/1.1, can be found at http://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc2068.txt.

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