There are a number of ways that network applications can communicate using the TCP/IP protocol stack. Some of them, such as named pipes, go through the network redirector, which is part of the Workstation service. Many older applications were written to the NetBIOS interface, which is supported by NetBIOS over TCP/IP. The Windows Sockets interface is currently popular. A quick overview of the Windows Sockets Interface and the NetBIOS Interface is presented here