How can I make networking work in my WinCE app without launching IE first?

Question

I have a simple WinCE network application (in C, Win32 APIs). I find that networking doesn't seem to work unless I launch IE (or another network app) first. I assume that IE is setting up my network interface in some way.

How can I do this for myself?

Might I need to display a list of available interfaces to the user (eg. WiFi/Ethernet/3G)?

Thanks.

Answer 1

All I know is that Internet Explorer uses WinInet (wininet.dll) for its networking, and you can too. WinInet is a MS API for working with http and ftp protocols. Many of the settings on the "Internet Options" control panel applet are actually WinInet settings (e.g. for dealing with cookies, setting up proxies on LANs, and autodial on dial-up networks). I'm 99% sure that anything that IE can do, you can do yourself using the API.

Answer 2

I think the answer might be

InternetAttemptConnect

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa383996(VS.85).aspx

Answer 3

If by "network application" you mean sockets, then WinCE definitely does not require IE to launch for that to work. You'll need to provide more specifics about what you're trying to do for a better answer than that.

Answer 4

You need to establish a network connection first. You can automate the process using the connection manager API:

Connection Manager

The user can also raise a data connection manually.