Windows Vista contains a brand new networking stack, which brings large improvements in all areas of network-related functionality^[1]. It includes native implementation of IPv6, as well as complete overhaul of IPv4. The new TCP/IP stack uses a new method to store configuration settings that enables more dynamic control and does not require a computer restart after settings are changed. The new stack, implemented as a dual stack model, is based on a strong host model and features an infrastructure to enable more modular components that can be dynamically inserted and removed. Windows Vista is a line of graphical operating systems used on personal computers, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, Tablet PCs, and media centers. ... Windows Vista (formerly codenamed Windows Longhorn) has many significant new features compared with previous Microsoft Windows versions, covering most aspects of the operating system. ... Windows Vista (formerly codenamed Windows Longhorn) has many significant new features compared with previous Microsoft Windows versions, covering most aspects of the operating system. ... There are a number of security and safety features new to Windows Vista, most of which are not available in any prior Microsoft Windows operating system release. ... Windows Vista contains a brand new networking stack, which brings large improvements in all areas of network-related functionality[1]. It includes native implementation of IPv6, as well as complete overhaul of IPv4. ... Windows Vista provides contains a range of new technologies and features that are intended to help network administrators and power users better manage their systems. ... While Windows Vista contains many new features, a number of older technologies and obsolete capabilities that were a part of Windows XP are no longer present or changed, resulting in the removal of certain functionality. ... Windows Vista ships in six editions. ... Development of Windows Vista occurred over the span of five and a half years, starting in earnest in May 2001,[1] prior to the release of Microsofts Windows XP operating system, and continuing until November 2006. ... Windows Vista, the latest version of Microsofts desktop operating system, has been the target of a number of negative assessments by various groups. ... Windows Vista is the latest release of Microsoft Windows, a line of graphical operating systems used on personal computers, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, Tablet PCs, and media centers. ... In computer networking, a host model is an option of designing the TCP/IP stack of a networking operating system like Microsoft Windows or Linux. ...

The Network and Sharing Center

The user interface for configuring, troubleshooting and working with network connections has changed significantly from prior versions of Windows as well. Users can make use of the new "Network Center" to see the status of their network connections, and to access every aspect of configuration. The network can be browsed using Network Explorer, which replaces Windows XP's "My Network Places". Network Explorer items can be a shared device such as a scanner, or a file share. The Network Location Awareness (NLA) service uniquely identifies each network and exposes the network's attributes and connectivity type so that applications can determine the optimal network configuration. However, applications have to use the NLA APIs expicitly to be aware of the network connectivity changes, and adapt accordingly. Windows Vista uses the LLTD protocol to graphically present how different devices are connected over a network, as a Network Map. In addition, the Network Map uses LLTD to determine connectivity information and media type (wired or wireless), so that the map is topologically accurate. The ability to know network topology is important for diagnosing and solving networking problems, and for streaming content over a network connection. Any device can implement LLTD to appear on the Network Map with an icon representing the device, allowing users one-click access to the device's user interface. When LLTD is invoked, it provides metadata about the device that contains static or state information, such as the MAC address, IPv4/IPv6 address, signal strength etc. Image File history File links Windows_Vista_Network_and_Sharing_Center. ... Image File history File links Windows_Vista_Network_and_Sharing_Center. ... Windows XP is a line of proprietary operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on general-purpose computer systems, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, and media centers. ... Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) is a licensed data link layer protocol for network topology discovery and quality of service diagnostics, developed by Microsoft as part of their Windows Rally set of technologies. ... In computer networking a Media Access Control address (MAC address) is a unique identifier attached to most network adapters (NICs). ... In telecommunications, and particularly in radio, signal strength is the measure of how strongly a transmitted signal is being received, measured, or predicted, at a reference point that is a significant distance from the transmitting antenna. ...

Network classification

Windows Vista classifies the networks it connects to as either Public, Private or Domain and uses Network Location Awareness to switch between network types. Different network types have different firewall policies. An open network such as a public wireless network is classified as Public and is the most restrictive of all network settings. In this mode other computers on the network are not trusted and external access to the computer, including sharing of files and printers, is disabled. A home network is classified as Private, and it enables file sharing between computers. If the computer is joined to a domain, the network is classified as a Domain network; in such a network the policies are set by the domain controller. When a network is first connected to, Vista prompts to choose the correct network type. On subsequents connections to the network, the service is used to gain information on which network is connected to and automatically switch to the network configuration for the connected network. Windows Vista introduces a concept of network profiles. For each network, the system stores the IP address, DNS server, Proxy server and other network features specific to the network in that network's profile. So when that network is subsequently connected to, the settings need not be reconfigured, the ones saved in its profile are used. In the case of mobile machines, the network profiles are chosen automatically based on what networks are available. Each profile is part of either a Public, Private or Domain network. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The Domain Name System or DNS is a system that stores information about host names and domain names in a kind of distributed database on networks, such as the Internet. ... Origin: Proxy: a person authorized to act for another. ...

Internet Protocol v6

The Windows Vista networking stack supports the dual Internet Protocol (IP)) layer architecture in which the IPv4 and IPv6 implementations share common Transport and Framing layers. IPv6 is now supported by all networking components, services, and the user interface. In IPv6 mode, Windows Vista can use the Link Local Multicast Name Resolution (LLMNR) protocol to resolve names of local hosts on a network which does not have a DNS server running. This service is useful for networks without a central managing server, and for ad-hoc wireless networks. IPv6 can also be used over PPP-based dial-up connections. Windows Vista can also act as a client/server for file sharing or DCOM over IPv6. Support for DHCPv6, which can be used with IPv6, is also included. IPv6 can even be used when full native IPv6 connectivity is not available, using Teredo tunneling; this can even traverse most IPv4 Network Address Translations (NATs). Full support for multicast is also included, via the MLDv2 and SSM protocols. The Internet Protocol (IP) is a data-oriented protocol used for communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork. ... Internet Protocol version 4 is the fourth iteration of the Internet Protocol (IP) and it is the first version of the protocol to be widely deployed. ... Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is a network layer protocol for packet-switched internetworks. ... Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is a network layer protocol for packet-switched internetworks. ... The Domain Name System or DNS is a system that stores information about host names and domain names in a kind of distributed database on networks, such as the Internet. ... In computing, the Point-to-Point Protocol, or PPP, is commonly used to establish a direct connection between two nodes. ... (DHCP) is a set of rules used by a communications device such as a computer, router or network adapter to allow the device to request and obtain an IP address from a server which has a list of addresses available for assignment. ... The Teredo Tunneling IPv6 over UDP through NAT protocol defines a method to access the IPv6 Internet from behind a NAT device. ... Multicast Listener Discovery is the protocol used in the IPv6 protocol suite by a router to discover listeners for a specific multicast group, much as IGMP is used in IPv4. ... Source-specific multicast (SSM) is a service model for multicast operation. ...

Wireless networks

Wireless Networking support in Windows Vista has been improved. Support for wireless networks is built into the network stack itself, and does not emulate wired connections, as was the case with previous versions of Windows. This allows implementation of wireless-specific features such as larger frame sizes and optimized error recovery procedures. It will also be easier to find wireless networks in range and tell which networks are open and which are closed. Hidden wireless networks, which do not advertise their Service set identifier (SSID) will be better supported. Security for wireless networks is being improved with improved support for newer wireless standards like 802.11i. EAP Transport Layer Security (EAP-TLS) is the default authentication mode. Connections are made at the most secure connection level supported by the wireless access point. WPA2 can be used even in ad-hoc mode. Windows Vista also provides a Fast Roaming service that will allow users to move from one access point to another without loss of connectivity. Preauthentication with the new wireless access point will be used to retain the connectivity. Wireless networks are managed from either the Connect to a network dialog box within the GUI or the netsh wlan command from the shell. Settings for wireless networks can also be configured using Group policy. The notebook is connected to the wireless access point using a PCMCIA wireless card. ... In Wi-Fi Wireless LAN computer networking, a service set identifier (SSID) is a code attached to all packets on a wireless network to identify each packet as part of that network. ... IEEE 802. ... Extensible Authentication Protocol, or EAP, is a universal authentication framework frequently used in wireless networks and Point-to-Point connections. ... IEEE 802. ...

Windows Vista enhances the security when joining a domain over a wireless network. It can use Single Sign On to use the same credentials to join a wireless network as well as the domain housed within the network. In this case, the same RADIUS server is used for both PEAP authentication for joining the network and MS-CHAP v2 authentication to log in to the domain. A bootstrap wireless profile can also be created on the wireless client, which first authenticates the computer to the wireless network and joins the network. At this stage, the machine still does not have any access to the domain resources. The machine will run a script, stored either on the system or on USB thumb drive, which authenticates it to the domain. Authentication can be done wither by using username and password combination or security certificates from a Public key infrastructure (PKI) vendor such as VeriSign. Circle illustration In classical geometry, a radius (plural: radii) of a circle or sphere is any line segment from its center to its boundary. ... Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol, Protected EAP, or simply PEAP (pronounced peep), is a method to securely transmit authentication information, including passwords, over wireless networks. ... MS-CHAP is the Microsoft version of the Challenge-handshake authentication protocol, CHAP. The protocol exist in two versions, MS-CHAPv1 (defined in RFC 2433) and MS-CHAPv2 (defined in RFC 2759). ... In cryptography, a public key infrastructure (PKI) is an arrangement that binds public keys with respective user identities by means of a certificate authority (CA). ... VeriSign, Inc. ...

Network performance

Windows Vista Networking stack also uses several performance optimizations, which allow higher throughput by allowing faster recovery from packet losses, when using a high packet loss environment such as wireless networks. Windows Vista use the NewReno algorithm which allows a sender to send more data while retrying in case it receives a partial acknowledgement, which is acknowledgement from the receiver for only a part of data that has been received. It also uses Selective Acknowledgements (SACK) to reduce the amount of data to be retransmitted in case a portion of the data sent was not received correctly. It also includes Neighbour Unreachability Detection capability in both IPv4 and IPv6, which tracks the accessibility of neighboring nodes. This allows faster error recovery, in case a neighboring node fails. NDIS 6.0 introduced in Windows Vista supports improved manageability, scalability and performance with reduced complexity for NDIS miniports, and simpler models for writing intermediate and filter drivers. The TCP/IP stack also provides fail-back support for default gateway changes by periodically attempting to send TCP traffic through a previously detected unavailable gateway. This can provide faster throughput by sending traffic through the primary default gateway on the subnet. Retransmission refers to one of the basic mechanisms used by protocols operating over a packet switched computer network to provide reliable communication (such as that provided by a reliable byte stream, for example TCP). ... The Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) is an application programming interface (API) for network interface cards (NICs). ...

Another significant change that aims to improve network throughput is the automatic resizing of TCP Receive window. The receive window (RWIN) specifies how much data a host is prepared to receive, and is limited by, among other things, the available buffer space. In other words, it is a measure of how much data the remote transmitter can send before requiring an acknowledgement for the outstanding data. When the receive window is too small, the remote transmitter will frequently find that it has hit the limit of how much outstanding data it can transmit, even though there is enough bandwidth available to transmit more data. This leads to incomplete link utilization. So using a larger RWIN size boosts throughput in such situations; an auto-adjusting RWIN tries to keep the throughput rate as high as is permissible by the bandwidth of the link. Receive window auto tuning functionality continually monitors the bandwidth and the latency of TCP connections individually and optimize the receive window for each connection. The window size is increased in high-bandwidth (~5 Mbit/s+) or high-latency (>10ms) situations. RWIN (TCP Receive Window) is the amount of data that your computer can accept without acknowledging the sender. ... RWIN (TCP Receive Window) is the amount of data that your computer can accept without acknowledging the sender. ... The Internet protocol suite is the set of communications protocols that implement the protocol stack on which the Internet runs. ... Lag is a common term used to describe a symptom often encountered in computing and especially networked systems, where results of actions appear much later than expected. ...

Traditional TCP implementations uses the TCP Slow Start algorithm to detect how fast it can transmit without choking the receiver (or intermediate nodes). In a nutshell, it specifies that transmission should start at a slow rate, by transmitting a few packets. This number is controlled by the Congestion window - which specifies the number of outstanding packets that has been transmitted but for which an acknowldgement of receipt from the receiver has not yet been received. As acknowledgements are received, the congestion window is expanded, one TCP segment at a time till an acknowledgement fails to arrive. Then the sender assumes that with the congestion window size of that instant, the network gets congested. However, a high bandwidth network can sustain a quite large congestion window without choking up. The slow start algorithm can take quite some time to reach that threshold - leaving the network under-utilized for a significant time. Windows Vista TCP/IP stack includes a component called Compound TCP (CTCP) which, if enabled, uses a different algorithm to modify the congestion window - borrowing from TCP Vegas and TCP New Reno. For every acknowledgement received, it increases the congestion window more aggressively, thus reaching the peak throughput much faster, increasing overall throughput.^[2] Slow-start is part of the congestion control strategy used by TCP, the data transmission protocol used by many Internet applications, such as HTTP and Secure Shell. ... In TCP, the congestion window determines the number of packets that can be outstanding at any time. ... TCP Vegas is a TCP congestion control, or network congestion avoidance, algorithm that emphasizes packet delay, rather than packet loss, as a signal to help determine the rate at which to send packets. ... The TCP uses a network congestion avoidance algorithm that includes various aspects of an additive-increase-multiplicative-decrease (AIMD) scheme, with other schemes such as slow-start in order to achieve congestion avoidance. ...

The new TCP/IP stack also supports Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) to keep throughput hit due to network congestion as low as possible. Without ECN, a TCP message segment is dropped by some router when if its buffer is full. The sender detects the segment did not reach the destination; but due to lack of feedback from the congested router has no information on the extent of reduction in transmission rate it needs to make. Standard TCP implementations detect this drop when they time out waiting for acknowledgement from the receiver. The sender then resets the size of its congestion window, which denotes the amount of data allowed to be unacknowledged by the sender at any time, to TCP's Maximum Segment Size, and commences TCP Slow Start. This is to let the router recover from congestion. However, the sudden drop in throughput rate has noticeable impacts on time-sensitive streams like streaming media, and such a significant drop might not have been necessary. In that case, the bandwidth available is being left under-utilized. With ECN support enabled, the router sets two bits in the data packets that indicate the receiver it is experiencing congestion (but not yet fully choked). The receiver in turns lets the receiver know that a router is facing congestion and then the receiver lowers its transmission rate by some amount. If the router is still congested, it will set the bits again, and eventually the sender will slow down even more. The advantage of this approach is that the router does not get full enough to drop packets, and thus the sender does not have to lower the transmission rate significantly to cause serious delays in time-sensitive streams; nor does it risk severe under-utilization of bandwidth. The only caveat is that both sender and receiver, as well as all intermediate routers, have to be ECN-enabled. If any of them is not ECN-enabled, they might consider a ECN-marked packet invalid and drop them. For this reason, ECN is disabled by default. It can be enabled via the netsh interface tcp set global ecncapability=enabled command.^[3] Network congestion avoidance is a process used in computer networks to avoid congestion. ... In TCP, the congestion window determines the number of packets that can be outstanding at any time. ... Slow-start is part of the congestion control strategy used by TCP, the data transmission protocol used by many Internet applications, such as HTTP and Secure Shell. ...

In previous versions of Windows, all processing needed to receive or transfer data over one network interface was done by a single processor, even in a multi processor system. Windows Vista can distribute the job of traffic processing in network communication among multiple processors. This feature is called Receive Side Scaling. Windows Vista also supports network cards with TCP Offload Engine, that have certain hardware-accelerated TCP/IP-related functionality. Windows Vista uses its TCP Chimney Offload system to offload to such cards framing, routing, error-correction and acknowledgement and retransmission jobs required in TCP. However, for application compatibility, only TCP data transfer functionality is offloaded to the NIC, not TCP connection setup. This will remove some load from the CPU. Traffic processing in both IPv4 and IPv6 can be offloaded. Windows Vista also supports NetDMA, which uses the DMA engine to allow processors to be freed from the hassles of moving data between network card data buffers and application buffers. It requires specific hardware DMA architectures, such as Intel I/O Acceleration to be enabled. TCP Offload Engine or TOE is a technology for the acceleration of TCP/IP, specifically by moving TCP/IP processing to a separate dedicated sub-system from the main host CPU, the overall system TCP/IP performance is improved. ...

Quality of Service

Windows Vista's networking stack includes integrated policy-based Quality of Service (QoS) functionality to prioritize network traffic. Quality of Service can be used to manage network usage by specific applications or users, by throttling the bandwidth available to them, or it can be used to limit bandwidth usage by other applications when high priority applications, such as real time conferencing applications, are being run, to ensure they get the bandwidth they need. Traffic throttling can also be used to prevent large data transfer operations from using up all the available bandwidth. In Windows Vista, QoS policies can be applied to any application, thus eliminating the need to rewrite applications using QoS APIs to be QoS-aware. QoS policies can either be set on a per-machine basis or set by Active Directory Group policy objects which ensures that all Windows Vista clients connected to the Active Directory container (a domain, a site or an organizational unit)^[4] will enforce the policy settings. In the fields of packet-switched networks and computer networking, the traffic engineering term Quality of Service (QoS) refers to control mechanisms that can provide different priority to different users or data flows, or guarantee a certain level of performance to a data flow in accordance with requests from the... Typically Active Directory is managed using the graphical Microsoft Management Console. ... Local Group Policy Editor in Windows XP Media Center Edition Group policy is part of Microsofts IntelliMirror technology which aims to reduce the overall cost of supporting users of Windows. ...

Windows Vista also includes qWave, which is a pre-configured Quality of Service module for time dependent multimedia data, such as audio or video streams. qWave uses different packet priority schemes for real-time flows (such as multimedia packets) and best-effort flows (such as file downloads or e-mails) to ensure that real time data gets as little delays as possible, while providing a high quality channel for other data packets.

Web Services for Devices (WSDAPI) is a complete implementation of the Devices Profile for Web Services (DPWS) standard. DPWS describes a set of requirements that enable a device to be discovered by clients and describe available services to those clients. Function Discovery is a new technology that serves as an abstraction layer between applications and devices, allowing applications to discover devices by referencing the device's function, rather than by its bus type or the nature of its connection. With Windows Connect Now, users can quickly and easily create wireless network configuration settings and transmit them to the access point. Plug and Play Extensions (PnP-X) allow network-connected devices to appear as local devices inside Windows connected physically. UPnP support has also been enhanced to include integration with PnP-X and Function Discovery. There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ...

See also: Windows Rally

Windows Rally is a set of technologies from Microsoft to simplify the setup and maintenance of wired and wireless network-connected devices and ensure reliable, secure and high-quality connectivity for users who connect the devices to the Internet or to computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system. ...

Network security

In order to provide better security when transferring data over a network, Windows Vista provides enhancements to the cryptographic algorithms used to obfuscate data. Support for 256-bit and 384-bit Diffie-Hellman (DH) algorithms, as well as for 128-bit, 192-bit and 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is included in the network stack itself. Direct support for SSL connections in new Winsock API allows socket applications to directly control security of their traffic over a network (such as providing security policy and requirements for traffic, querying security settings) rather than having to add extra code to support a secure connection. IPsec is now fully integrated with Windows Firewall and offers simplified configuration and improved authentication. IPsec supports IPv6, including support for Internet key exchange (IKE) and data encryption, client-to-DC protection, integration with Network Access Protection and Network Diagnostics Framework support. The new TCP/IP suite utilizes a per-user routing table, thus compartmentalizing the network according to the user's needs. Data from one segment cannot go into another. This feature is called "Routing Compartments".^[5] Computers running Windows Vista can be a part of logically isolated networks within an Active Directory domain. Only the computers which are in the same logical network partition will be able to access the nesources in the domain. Even though other systems may be physically on the same network, unless they are in the same logical partition, they wont be able to access partitioned resources. A system may be part of multiple network partitions. Diffie-Hellman key exchange is a cryptographic protocol which allows two parties to agree on a secret key over an insecure communication channel. ... In cryptography, the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), also known as Rijndael, is a block cipher adopted as an encryption standard by the U.S. government. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Windows Sockets API version 2. ... IPsec (IP security) is a suite of protocols for securing Internet Protocol (IP) communications by authenticating and/or encrypting each IP packet in a data stream. ... Windows Firewall icon in Windows Vista Windows Firewall is a personal firewall, included with Microsofts Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista operating systems. ... Internet key exchange (IKE) is the protocol used to set up a security association (SA) in the IPsec protocol suite. ... On Windows Server Systems, the domain controller (DC) is the server that responds to security authentication requests (logging in, checking permissions, etc. ... Network Access Protection (NAP) is a Microsoft technology of controlling network access, first utilized in Microsoft Windows Vista. ... This article describes routing in computer networks, a method of finding paths from origins to destinations, along which information can be passed. ... Typically Active Directory is managed using the graphical Microsoft Management Console. ...

Windows Vista also introduces Network Access Protection (NAP), which makes sure that computers connecting to a network conform to a required level of system health as has been set by the administrator of the network. With NAP enabled on a network, when a Windows Vista computer attempts to join a network, it is verified that the computer is up-to-date with security updates, virus signatures and other factors, including configuration of IPsec and 802.1x authentication settings, specified by the network administrator. It will be granted full access to the network only when the criteria is met, failing which it may be either be denied access to the network or granted limited access only to certain resources. It may optionally be granted access to servers which will provide it with the latest updates. Once the updates are installed, the computer is granted access to the network. However, Windows Vista can only be a NAP client, i.e., a client computer which connects to a NAP enabled network. Health policy and verification servers have to be running Windows Server 2008. Network Access Protection (NAP) is a Microsoft technology of controlling network access, first utilized in Microsoft Windows Vista. ... IPsec (IP security) is a suite of protocols for securing Internet Protocol (IP) communications by authenticating and/or encrypting each IP packet in a data stream. ... IEEE 802. ... Windows Server Longhorn is the codename for the next server operating system from Microsoft. ...

Network diagnostics

The ability to assist the user in diagnosing a network problem is expected to be a major new networking feature. There is extensive support for runtime diagnostics for both wired and wireless networks, including support for TCP Management information base (MIB)-II and better system event logging and tracing. It can inform user of most causes of network transmission failure, such as incorrect IP address, gateway failure, port in use, receiver not ready etc. Transmission errors are also exhaustively logged, which can be analyzed to better find the cause of error. Windows Vista has a greater awareness of the network topology the host computer is in, using technologies such as Universal Plug and Play. With this new network awareness technology it can provide help to the user in fixing network issues or simply provide a graphical view of the perceived network configuration. There is also a new "Network Center", allowing the administration of the network topology. Windows Vista also provides a GUI module for configuration of both IPv4 and IPv6 properties. A management information base (MIB) is a type of database used to manage the devices in a communications network. ... Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a set of computer network protocols promulgated by the UPnP Forum. ... A graphical user interface (GUI, often pronounced gooey) is a type of user interface which allows people to interact with a computer and computer-controlled devices which employ graphical icons, visual indicators or special graphical elements called widgets, along with text labels or text navigation to represent the information and...

Windows Filtering Platform

Windows Vista network stack includes Windows Filtering Platform,^[6] which allows external applications to access and hook into the packet processing pipeline of the networking subsystem. WFP allows incoming and outgoing packets to be filtered, analyzed or modified at several layers of the TCP/IP protocol stack. Because WFP has an inbuilt filtering engine, applications need not write any custom engine, they just need to provide the custom logic for the engine to use. WFP includes a Base Filtering Engine which implements the filter requests. The packets are then processed using the Generic Filtering Engine, which also includes a Callout Module, where applications providing the custom processing logic can be hooked up. WFP can be put to uses such as inspecting packets for malware, selective packet restriction, such as in firewalls, or providing custom encryption systems, among others.

Peer-to-peer communication

Windows Vista includes support for peer-to-peer communication and includes implementation of peer-to-peer protocols out-of-the-box. It also includes a new version of the Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRPv2), which is faster and more scalable. Peer-to-peer networking functionality can be accessed from the WinSock API as well. The peer-to-peer networking subsystem can also discover other people running the same service in the local subnet, using a feature dubbed People Near Me. This facility can be used to develop ad-hoc collaborative applications. A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is a network that relies on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants in the network rather than concentrating it in a relatively few servers. ... A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is a network that relies on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants in the network rather than concentrating it in a relatively few servers. ... This article needs more context around or a better explanation of technical details to make it more accessible to general readers and technical readers outside the specialty, without removing technical details. ...

A planned feature in Windows Vista would have taken advantage of peer-to-peer technology to provide a new type of domain-like networking setup known as a Castle, but this did not make it into the release version. Castle would have made it possible to have an identification service, which provides user authentication, for all members on the network, without a centralized server. It would have allowed user credentials to propagate across the peer-to-peer network, making them more suitable for a home network. A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is a network that relies on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants in the network rather than concentrating it in a relatively few servers. ...

Background Intelligent Transfer Service

The new Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) 3.0 has a new feature called Neighbor Casting which supports peer-to-peer file transfers within a domain. This facilitates peer caching allows users to download and serve content (such as WSUS updates) from peers on the same subnet, receive notification when a file is downloaded, access the temporary file while the download is in progress, and control HTTP redirects. This saves bandwidth on the network and reduces performance load on the server. BITS 3.0 also uses Internet Gateway Device counters to more accurately calculate available bandwidth. Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) is a component of modern Microsoft Windows operating systems that facilitates prioritized, throttled, and asynchronous transfer of files between machines using idle network bandwidth. ... A Windows Server domain or Windows NT Domain is a logical group of computers running versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system that share a central directory database. ... Screenshot of a Windows Software Update Services administration console Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) provides a software update service for Microsoft Windows operating systems and other software. ... Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) comes with a solution for Network Address Translation (NAT) traversal. ...

Server Message Block 2.0

A new version of the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol is being introduced with Windows Vista.^[7] A claimed significant improvement over SMB support in prior versions of Windows is the ability to compound multiple actions into a single request, which significantly reduces the number of round-trips the client needs to make to the server, improving performance as a result. SMB1 also has a compounding mechanism (known as AndX) to compound multiple actions, but is rarely used by Microsoft clients. Larger buffer sizes are supported, also increasing performance with large file transfers. The notion of "durable file handles" is introduced, which allow a connection to an SMB server to survive brief network outages, such as with a wireless network, without having to construct a new session. Support for symbolic links is included as well. In SMB 1 various sizes in the protocol are 16 bits. Many have been changed to 32 or 64 bit, and in the case of file handles to 16 bytes. Server Message Block (SMB) is an application-level network protocol mainly applied to shared access to files, printers, serial ports, and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network. ...

SMB 2.0 will only be used when communicating with other Windows Vista machines, or with Windows Server "Longhorn". SMB 1.0 will continue to be used for connections to any previous version of Windows, or to Samba. (Samba 4 does have experimental support for SMB 2). Windows Server Longhorn is the codename for the next server operating system from Microsoft. ... Samba logo. ...

SMB 2 has two big benefits to Microsoft. The first is clear intellectual property ownership. SMB 1 was originally designed by IBM and was shipped on a wide variety of non-Windows operating systems such as SCO Xenix, OS/2 and DEC VMS (Pathworks). It was partially standardised by X/Open and also had draft standards for IETF which lapsed. (See http://ubiqx.org/cifs/Intro.html for historical detail).

The second benefit is a clean break. Microsoft's SMB1 code has to work with a huge variety of SMB clients and servers. A large number of items in the protocol are optional (such as short and long filenames), there are many infolevels for commands (selecting what structure is returned to a particular request), unicode was a later addition etc. With SMB2 there is significantly reduced compatibility testing (currently only other Vista clients and servers). Additionally the code is a lot less complex since there is far less variability (eg there is no need to worry about having Unicode and non-Unicode code paths as SMB2 requires Unicode support).

Winsock Kernel

Winsock Kernel (WSK) is a new transport-independent kernel-mode Network Programming Interface (NPI) for that provides TDI client developers with a sockets-like programming model similar to those supported in user-mode Winsock. While most of the same sockets programming concepts exist as in user-mode Winsock such as socket, creation, bind, connect, accept, send and receive, Winsock Kernel is a completely new programming interface with unique characteristics such as asynchronous I/O that uses IRPs and event callbacks to enhance performance. TDI is supported in Windows Vista for backward compatibility. Windows Sockets API version 2. ... It has been suggested that Ip socket be merged into this article or section. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

References

February 15 is the 46th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... April 29 is the 119th day of the year (120th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the CE era. ... April 8 is the 98th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (99th in leap years). ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the CE era. ... May 18 is the 138th day of the year (139th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... August 5 is the 217th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (218th in leap years), with 148 days remaining. ... May 13 is the 133rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (134th in leap years). ... shelby was here 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... April 25 is the 115th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (116th in leap years). ... March 10 is the 69th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (70th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... May 1 is the 121st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (122nd in leap years). ...

External links

• Enterprise Networking with Windows Vista
• Connecting to Wireless Networks with Windows Vista
• Policy-based QoS Architecture in Windows Server "Longhorn" and Windows Vista