INFO: Windows 95 Support for Network DDE

ID: Q125703

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API) included with:
```
    - Microsoft Windows 95
```

SUMMARY

Network DDE is a technology that allows applications that use the DDE transport to transparently exchange data over a network. It consists of two major components:

1. The NetDDE agent. This is a service that acts as a proxy for the remote

   DDE application. It communicates with all local DDE applications, and
   with remote NetDDE agents using NetBIOS as shown in this chart:

     Machine A                                        Machine B
   +-----------+                                   +-----------+
   |           |                                   |           |
   | DDE App 1 |                                   | DDE App 2 |
   |           |                                   |           |
   +-----------+                                   +-----------+
           ^ |                                        ^ |
           | |                                        | |
           | |                                        | |
           | |                                        | |
           DDE                                        DDE
       Conversation                               Conversation
           | |                                        | |
           | |                                        | |
           | V                                        | V
        +------+                                   +------+
        |NetDDE|                                   |NetDDE|
        | Agent| < ------ NetBIOS session ------ > | Agent|
        +------+                                   +------+

2. A DLL that implements NetDDE API functions such as NDdeShareAdd,

   NDdeShareDel, and so on. This DLL is usually named NDDEAPI.DLL.

In the interests of backwards compatibility, Windows 95 includes a NetDDE agent and a 16-bit NetDDE API DLL. However, Windows 95 does not include a 32-bit NetDDE API DLL. Consequently, 32-bit applications that use NetDDE API functions will need to thunk to the 16-bit NETAPI.DLL.

Additional query words:

Keywords          : kbnetwork kbAPI kbSDKPlatform kbWinOS95 kbGrpNet 
Issue type        : kbinfo

Last Reviewed: July 31, 1998