System and method of implementing netware core protocol within a sockets model

The present invention generally relates to computer networking software and more particularly to a system and method for implementing NetWare Core Protocol (NCP) within a sockets model, such as a Berkeley System Distribution (BSD) sockets model. A system and method of implementing a NetWare Core Protocol (NCP) module within a sockets model, such as a Berkeley Systems Distribution (BSD) Sockets model, is disclosed wherein the NCP module has a NCP reliability sub-module and a NCP library sub-module. The BSD Sockets model has a sockets interface, one or more applications, an Internetwork Packet eXchange (IPX) network layer and a front plane. The system and method of the present invention is implemented such that the NCP library sub-module is located above the sockets interface and the NCP reliability sub-module is located below the sockets interface. This results in many advantages compared to prior implementations which had the entire NCP module located above the sockets layer, including increased performance due to the elimination of task switched data transfer and other interprocess communication steps, such as pipes and selects that impede performance.