Byte Ordering Assumptions

A service provider should treat all SOCKADDR components exclusive of the address family parameter as if they are in the network byte order, and the address family parameter as in the local machine's byte order. It is the Windows Sockets application's responsibility to make sure that addresses contained in SOCKADDR structures are properly arranged. The Windows Sockets API provides a number of conversion routines to simplify this task. Currently these routines understand conversion between the local host's natural byte order and either big-endian or little-endian network byte ordering. The Windows Sockets architecture can support other byte ordering schemes in the future.