This documentation describes the changes between previous versions of Windows and Windows 95 in network API support.
A Windows networking API set was introduced in Windows 3.0 and Windows 3.1. The Windows 3.1 WinNet interface is a set of network-independent APIs that enables a network vendor to supply a DLL (a network provider) which implements the interface. Windows 3.1 will interact with that interface to extend itself to be network-aware. Applications were not allowed to use the APIs exported by the network provider DLL (with a few exceptions). The network provider DLL had to present dialogs to carry out its high-level functionality, and this resulted in a variety of user interfaces for the same functionality.