WinInet and the OSI Model

In the International Organization for Standardization Open Systems Interconnection (ISO/OSI) model, WinInet operates at the session layer. WinInet handles programming Windows Sockets (Winsock), TCP/IP, and Internet protocols.

The Windows CE WinInet API uses the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) version 1.1 and FTP Internet protocols. When navigating a Web site, the Internet browser uses HTTP to communicate with the Web server and read associated Web page files. Transmitting HTML is the primary purpose for HTTP, although HTTP can transmit any data format.

HTTP defines the format of a client request and a server response. A basic HTTP transaction consists of the following steps:

1. Client establishes a TCP/IP connection.
2. Client sends a request to the server.
3. Server sends a response to the client.
4. Client closes the TCP/IP connection.

FTP is used for sending and receiving files over a network.

Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS) is a communication protocol designed to transfer encrypted data over the Internet. HTTPS is an HTTP extension using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). SSL is an encryption protocol invoked on a Web server that uses HTTPS.