Internet communication question

Hi:

In Unix, when a program tries to send some data to Internet, operating system will open a socket file for it, then the program write the data onto the socket file, then operating system read the data from the socket file and sends them to the modem, then modem sends data to the Internet. Even for the operations such as FTP, the file going to be uploaded is already on the hard drive, FTP program does not send the data from file directly into the modem, but write the data into the socket file first. I want know this is true for Window XP or not?

I have a question about Internet communication. I am using Window XP. If I want to send the some data to Internet, for example uploading file by FTP or sending email, will the program send the data directly to modem, then modem send data to Internet? Or the program write the data onto the hard drive, then the data is sent from hard drive to modem, then modem send data to Internet?Actually, when correctly programmed - none of these.

Your application will simply work with the Operating System (Windows XP) using APIs like FtpOpenFile (http://search.msdn.microsoft.com/search/Redirect.aspx?title=FtpOpenFile&url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/wcesdkr/html/_wcesdk_win32_FtpOpenFile.asp) or InternetOpenUrl (http://search.msdn.microsoft.com/search/Redirect.aspx?title=InternetOpenUrl&url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/wceinternet5/html/wce50lrfinternetopenurl.asp).

Windows will take care of the implementation detail i.e. working with the File-System, Memory, Networking (and so on.. ) Subsystems.

Note that it is not in every case that Windows even needs to know of the existence of the Modem. My Modem is actually visible to my PC as a DHCP Server on a LAN and not as a DSL Modem - this however doesn't need applications like IE or Firefox to be programmed any differently just for systems like mine -- because these applications simply work with Win API, and the Windows APIs abstract the networking et al implementation nuances.

That's right, it is a Router + DHCP Server.

In fact, it is more than that - hosts a Configuration Website + Runs a Webserver + Router + DHCP Server + Of course Modem + etc... Mentioning them all wasn't important to the point I was making. ;)