Networking  

Networking

Windows Vista includes new networking features that make your network easier to set up, easier to use, and more secure and reliable. Connect wirelessly to your company's network, share an Internet connection and printers, copy files between computers, or enjoy your favourite entertainment around your home. Whether at home, a small business, or a large enterprise, Windows Vista makes connectivity easier so you can focus on what matters to you.

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Windows Vista puts you in control of your network experience with the Network Center—the central place for all your networking needs. Network Center informs you about the network your computer is connected to and verifies whether it can successfully reach the Internet. It even presents this information in a summary in the Network Map so you can immediately see your connectivity to the network and Internet. If a PC on the network loses Internet connectivity, you can graphically see that the link is down, and then use Network Diagnostics to help determine the cause of the problem and get a suggestion for a solution.

Check your connection status, see your network visually, or troubleshoot a connection problem in the Network Center.

Network Center also allows you to quickly connect to other available networks, or create entirely new connections. You can view and configure your most important network settings in one place. And for less frequently accessed settings, Network Center provides direct links so you can easily find what you're looking for.

Network Center also makes it easy to connect your workplace network from home.

Easily connect to your workplace from home using the Network Center.

Network Setup

With Windows Vista, setting up a network between multiple PCs and devices (including printers, music players, and game systems) is simple and intuitive. The Network Setup Wizard allows you to set up wired or wireless networks by identifying unconfigured network devices and adding them to the network. The Network Setup Wizard also automates the process of adding new devices to your network. It automatically generates secure network settings to keep your network safe from intruders.

Network settings can also be saved to a portable USB flash drive to make adding PCs and devices to the network a quick and easy process. Simply insert the USB flash drive into a PC or device and it will automatically read the data and ready itself to join the network. File and printer sharing is also easily enabled on each PC on the network from the Network Setup Wizard, so you can share documents, photos, music, and other files across your network.

Network Explorer

Once a network is set up, you need to be able to easily browse content on networked PCs, devices, and printers. The new Network Explorer in Windows Vista makes it easy to share files and take advantage of the connectivity that a network provides. It presents a view of all PCs, devices, and printers on the network, and is significantly faster and more reliable than My Network Places in Windows XP. The Network Explorer is even able to use custom, representative icons for different devices (when enabled by manufacturers). You can also directly interact with select devices—adjust settings or control music playback, for example.

Create networks to share files, printers, and other devices.

Network Map

When people have multiple computers and devices on a network, with a combination of wireless and wired connections, it can be difficult to understand how everything is connected. Windows Vista provides a new feature called Network Map which shows you an easy-to-understand, graphical view of everything on the network, and how everything is connected. This helps you optimise your network for the best performance and easily locate any problems.

Network Map in a home environment showing a broken connection to a wireless router.

Wireless Networking

Windows Vista improves the wireless network experience in a number of ways. The new Network Awareness feature in Windows Vista keeps your applications aware of and optimised for the network's changing capabilities. Your data is also more secure with enhanced support for the latest wireless security protocols, including WPA2. Windows Vista helps you avoid connecting to fraudulent wireless networks which seem like legitimate hotspots but, in fact, are not. Windows Vista also provides an easy way to create ad-hoc wireless networks to use peer-to-peer applications such as file sharing and application collaboration.

Network Awareness

Network Awareness provides the ability to report changes in network connectivity to applications in order to provide a more seamless connected experience. As you connect to different networks, the change is communicated to Network Awareness-supported applications, which can then take appropriate actions for your connection to that network. For example, when you switch from your home office to your corporate network, firewall settings can be configured to open the ports needed to allow the use of IT management tools. Group Policy will detect the reconnection to the corporate network and automatically begin processing policy changes instead of waiting for the next detection cycle.