Winsock Specifications

• The Winsock 2 Specifications (in Microsoft Word format) are must-have documents for the Winsock programmer as they are the final word on what Winsock is supposed to do.
• The Winsock 1.1 Specifications are also still available. In particular, a WinHelp version of the spec is available here. (Most development tools already include something like this, though I think the one available here easily beats the Borland version in terms of ease of navigation.)

Software Development Kits

Below are pointers to various Winsock SDKs. If your development tool is anything close to recent, you probably don't need to download any of these as your tool will come with the pieces you need. The only people who will be interested in these links are those with older development tools, or those who need cutting-edge features that haven't yet made it into the mainstream development tools.

• The Win32 Platform SDK includes all the current Winsock 1.1 and Winsock 2 header files and libraries. It also includes the pieces you need to develop Winsock 2 applications on Windows 95, which didn't come with Winsock 2 support. See the FAQ item "Can I get Winsock 2 for...?" for information on Winsock 2 for other platforms and for pointers to the user-level components for Windows 95.
• winsock.bas is the Visual Basic equivalent of C's winsock.h, as it provides all of the definitions and such that let you talk directly to Winsock. This is probably not the best way to program Winsock in VB, but here it is anyway.