What's new in home networking
With Windows XP Professional, home networking has never been easier. You can use the Network Setup Wizard to quickly set up your own network. You can share your Internet connection with all the computers on your network, and feel comfortable knowing your computer is protected by an Internet Connection Firewall.
Set up your home or small office network
The Network Setup Wizard guides you through configuring your home or small office network. You can set up all the computers on your network to use one Internet connection, name each computer and provide a computer description, and enable the Internet Connection Firewall. You can only use the Network Setup Wizard after you have set up and physically connected your computers together.
Home networking made easy
Want to learn more about why you should set up a network, and how to do it? If your home or small business contains two or more computers, connecting them on a network greatly expands their capacity and may even save you money. When you set up a network, you can share hardware (like printers and scanners), a single Internet connection, and files and folders. You can also play multi-computer games. Windows XP Professional guides you step-by-step through the process of setting up a home or small office network.
Internet Connection Sharing
Use Internet Connection Sharing to connect your home network computers to the Internet with just one connection. With Internet Connection Sharing, you can use Internet browsers and Internet e-mail services from any computer on your network, even if that computer does not have a direct Internet connection.
Internet Connection Sharing overview
Internet Connection Firewall
The Internet Connection Firewall acts as a security system, specifying what information is communicated from the computers on your network to the Internet, and from the Internet to the computers on your network. You can enable the Internet Connection Firewall on all the computers in your network, even if the computers share a single Internet connection.
Internet Connection Firewall overview
Network Bridge
The network bridge simplifies the setup and configuration of small networks that consist of different types of network adapters, such as wireless, Ethernet, and home phoneline network adapters (HPNA). The network bridge creates a software connection to link the different types of adapters together. There is no need for special equipment that would normally be required for communication between different types of network adapters. Only one bridge may exist on a computer, but it may be used with as many different types of network adapters as the computer can physically accommodate.
What's new for user accounts and startup
What's new in other areas of Windows XP Professional
What's new for Help and support
What's new for browsing the Internet
What's new with files and folders
What's new in Windows XP Professional
