1. An apparatus providing direct access between one or more applications executed on a computer and a network interface which connects the computer to a network, the computer having memory utilized by both the applications and the network interface, the apparatus comprising: a plurality of registers in the network interface for storing references to locations in the memory of the computer, wherein the locations in the memory of the computer are for storing one or more queues of transmit and receive operations between each of the one or more of the applications and the network; memory locations containing the references to the locations in the memory of the computer storing the queues of transmit and receive operations for each of the one or more applications; means, operative in response to a request to process an operation for one of the applications, for selecting from the memory locations references to the locations in the memory of the computer where the queues of transmit and receive operations for the application requesting the operation are stored and for copying the selected references from the memory locations into the plurality of registers; and means for controlling direct access to the network by the application using the references stored in the plurality of registers.