Sinha explains the use of Windows and Windows NT inter-process communication methods to build applications which can communicate with their counterparts over the network. This book explores the challenges that developers face when they are developing network-aware or client/server programs within the Windows and Windows NT operating systems.

I was not always interested in networking, or computer science for that matter. In fact, I received a master of science degree in mining engineering from University of Alaska, Fairbanks. After graduating, I was looking for something interesting to do while my would-be wife completed her graduate degree in civil engineering, so I signed up to get a graduate degree in computer science. The first year's courses were full of complexity theory and algorithms, both of which I enjoyed but they didn't thrill me. In the second year, I took the Networking Architecture class from an unorthodox professor, Dr. Peter Knoke, who had recently come to academia after decades of industry work. Instead of following the prescribed book, he narrated the latest technology developments straight out of trade magazines and newspapers (the Wall Street Journal was his favorite ). Our individual projects involved research in the latest areas of networking, summarized in in-depth presentations. I picked local area networks as my topic and scoured all the trade magazines for information. When I hit an unknown term, such as "router," I would pore over the books and research papers to understand the technology and architecture. By the end of the semester, I had a broad knowledge not only of the theory of networking but also of the latest technology. Needless to add, I was hooked on networking and have spent most of my professional career in and around networking-from Microsoft LAN Manager to Directory Service to interactive TV applications. Most important, however, Dr. Knoke succeeded in showing his students how to learn on their own in a rapidly changing industry- a vital skill for surviving in the computer industry.