Abstract: An application provides access by multiple user processes to a single network process. The application includes a socket library and a network process which contains the device driver software for a plurality of network devices and components. The socket library provides the interface mechanism to the network process and can be created as a static or dynamically linked library. All user processes access a singular network process by calling a function in the socket library. The socket library communicates with the network process by formatting a message containing all the information necessary for the network process to fulfill the intent of the API call. The network process sends a message that is received by the socket library which, in turn, transmits to the user process the return value and any data received from the network process.