Introduction to the Microsoft Win32 Internet Functions

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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 ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc959.txt .
• RFC 1436, The Internet Gopher Protocol, can be found at ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc1436.txt .
• RFC 1945, Hypertext Transfer Protocol - HTTP/1.0, can be found at ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc1945.txt .
• RFC 2068, Hypertext Transfer Protocol - HTTP/1.1, can be found at ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2068.txt .