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The pages on this site contain documentation for very old MS-DOS software, purely for historical purposes. If you're looking for up-to-date documentation, particularly for programming, you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully out of date.

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The network driver can provide a variety of connection functions to let File
Manager and Print Manager connect to remote drives and devices.
 
Function               Description
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
WNetAddConnection      Creates a connection to a network drive or device.
 
WNetCancelConnection   Removes a connection to a network drive or device.
 
WNetGetConnections     Retrieves a list of current connections.
 
WNetRestoreConnection  Reconnects one or more permanently connected network
                       drives.
 
Saved Network Connections
 
Saved network connections are connections which are always automatically
connected when Windows starts. If the connection cannot be made, the drive
is still treated as connected, as if it were in the error state. File
Manager reconnects the drive if the user selects it. When the user connects
to a drive or printer, that connection is remembered as a permanent
connection. When the user disconnects a device through the disconnect dialog
box, it is removed from the list of permanently connected devices.
 
Although error state and permanent devices can be reconnected from File
Manager, the drives may not (generally will not) be valid for other Windows
applications. If Windows is unable to restore a permanent connection when
starting, a dialog box will warn the user of this event.
 
Network drivers which implement these functions will return a specification
version of 3.1 (0x030A) from when the WNNC_SPEC_VERSION value is specified
with the WNetGetCaps function.
 
Drivers written for the Windows 3.0 level of functionality will be supplied
with reasonable defaults for all 3.1 features. If a network does not require
special support for any of the features the network driver may be written to
the 3.0 specification.
 
Default Shell Behavior
 
If a network driver does not support the 3.1 functions (for example, it is a
Windows 3.0 network driver), Windows and File Manager simulate a new method
of supporting permanent connections.
 
If the user makes a permanent connection, the device will be added to the
[Network] section in the WIN.INI file. The keyword will be the local device
and the value will be the network resource. For security, passwords will not
be saved. The following example illustrates the new section:
 
[Network]
S:=\\USER2\SHELL
T:=\\TOOLSVR\DOSENV
U:=\\PYREX\USER
LPT1=\\WINDEV\PRINTER
 
When a device is disconnected, it is removed from the list of permanent
devices. File Manager simulates the behavior of WNetGetConnection returning
a connection with a special status when it is listed in the WIN.INI file,
but is not connected. The default connection dialogs allows the user to
reconnect a disconnected device which has a saved connection. The dialogs
also support disconnecting and reconnecting a device in an error state.
 
When Windows starts, it enumerates devices saved in the [Network] section
and attempts to redirect them using WNetAddConnection. If a device is
already redirected, the redirection will not be overridden. If
WNetAddConnection returns the WN_BAD_PASSWORD value, the user will be
prompted to supply the password.
 
Network drivers which require their own connection dialog boxes or startup
restore function should attempt to duplicate the functionality of the
default behavior as closely as possible in order to provide consistency. To
maintain this consistency, network drivers should use the [Network] section.
The keywords A: through Z: and all common MS-DOS device names (LPT1, COM1,
PRN, and so on) are reserved, including those not currently supported for
redirection. The network driver may define additional keywords of its own.
 
 
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