Can I create an instance of a socket before calling WSAStartup()?

I am writing a class for TCP/IP Network client communication. In the class header I create a SOCKET member. The class also contains a method for calling WSAStartup and checking the version. The method to make a connection first calls WSAStartup and then initialises the SOCKET member calling the socket() function. See code below. I am wondering if this is "correct", or if there is a better way.

The header file:

/*network.h*/
public class IPnetwork
{
private:
    WSADATA wsaData ;
    SOCKET hSocket ;
    sockaddr_in socketAddress ;
    static const int SERVER_PORT = 502 ;
    unsigned long int = serverIP ;

public:
    IPnetwork(char* serverIPaddress) ;
    bool Connect() ;
    bool Disconnect() ;
    ~IPnetwork() ;

private:
    bool startWinSock() ;
} ;

The source code:

/*network.cpp*/
IPnetwork::IPnetwork(char* serverIPaddress)
{
    serverIP = inet_addr(serverIPaddress) ;
}

bool IPnetwork::Connect()
{
     /* start winsock */
    if(!startWinSock())
    {
        return false ; /* winsock problem */
    }

    /* Create socket */
    if ((hSocket = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_TCP)) == INVALID_SOCKET)
    {
        return false ; /* could not create socket */
    }

    /* fill socket address structure */
    socketAddress.sin_family = AFINET ;
    socketAddress.sin_port = htons(SERVER_PORT) ;
    socketAddress.sin_addr.S_un.S_addr = serverIP ;

    /* connect */
    if(connect(hSocket,reinterpret_cast<sockaddr*>(&socketAddress), sizeof(sockAddr))!=0)
    {
        return false ; /* could not connect*/
    }

    return true ;

}

bool IPnetwork::startWinSock()
{
    if(WSAStartup(MAKEWORD(REQ_WINSOCK_VER,0),&wsaData)==0)
    {
        /* Check if major version is at least REQ_WINSOCK_VER */
        if (LOBYTE(wsaData.wVersion) < REQ_WINSOCK_VER)
        {
            return false ; /* winsock started but version is too low */
        }
        else
        {
            return true ; /* winsock started with right version*/
        }
    }
    else
    {
        return false ; /* winsock not started */
    }

}

You're worried about defining a variable of type SOCKET, and when its constructor runs?

That's not a problem, since SOCKET is a C-compatible plain-old-data integral type that holds a socket identifier. It isn't an object. There's no non-trivial construction or destruction associated with the variable itself.