Operating System

Windows XP Networking Features and Enhancements

White Paper

Abstract

The release of Windows XP signals a proliferation of features that will make networking a richer, more
complete and easier experience. This paper will discuss some of the new features or enhancements
found in this ground breaking product.
The information contained in this document represents the current
view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date
of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market
conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the
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© 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft,

Windows, and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or
trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or
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Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the
trademarks of their respective owners.
Microsoft Corporation • One Microsoft Way • Redmond, WA 98052-
6399 • USA
7/2001
 Acknowledgements
Contents

Acknowledgements................................................................................2

Introduction............................................................................................ 3

Windows XP Networking Features and Enhancements......................4

Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) 4

Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) Enhancements 4

Network Bridging Support 5

Quality of Service (QoS) Enhancement for Home Networks 5

Network Setup Wizard 6

Network Diagnostics Features 6

UPnP Client Support 7

Network Location Awareness and Winsock API Enhancements 8

Wireless LAN Enhancements 8

IPv6 Development Stack 9

Remote Access uses Credential Manager “Key Ring” 9

Connection Manager (CM) and Connection Manager Administration Kit (CMAK)

Updates 9

PPPOE Client 10

PVC Encapsulation – RFC 2684 10

NDIS 5.1 and Remote NDIS 11

Internet Protocol over IEEE 1394 (IP/1394) 12

Improved Network Media Support 12

IrCOMM Modem Driver for IrDA 12

TAPI 3.1 and TAPI Service Providers (TSP) 12

Real Time Communication (RTC) Client APIs 13

For More Information..............................................................................15

Tom Fout, program manager, Microsoft Corporation

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 Introduction
Windows XP Networking
Features and
Enhancements

Several sources exist for detailed information on the features and

enhancements covered in this paper. This includes papers found on the
Windows XP web site and the product and product documentation itself. This
paper is intended to give an overview of these features and enhancements
without going too deep into the technology and implementation. Each feature or
enhancement will be discussed in its own section or with complimentary
features.

Internet Connection Firewall (ICF)

When a computer is connected to the Internet or other pathway to the outside
world there is the threat of unauthorized attempts to access your computer and
data. Whether the computer connecting to the external network is a standalone
computer or acting as a gateway for a network behind the computer (see
Internet Connection Sharing below), a firewall can guard your home network
against the threat of unsafe network traffic while allowing appropriate network
traffic to pass.

Windows XP includes the Internet Connection Firewall to be used to protect

your computers and home networks connected in such a manner. This software
based firewall is enabled automatically when the Network Setup Wizard (below)
is run; setting your firewall up with default settings that will work for most
networks. The firewall can also be enabled or disabled manually through the
Network Connections folder.

The Internet Connection Firewall monitors connections and traffic originated

from inside the firewall to use in determining what traffic should be allowed from
the external network. Traffic originating from the external network will not be
allowed through the firewall by default. When hosting services or programs
(such as a web server) behind the firewall, these settings can be changed to
suit your needs.

For more information on ICF, refer to the Windows XP online help.

Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) Enhancements
Windows 2000 included ICS to enable sharing of a single Internet connection
among all of the computers on a home or small office network. The computer
connected to the Internet would have ICS enabled and provide addressing and
network address translation services for all of the computers on the network.

Besides providing a DHCP allocator for automatic addressing and a DNS proxy
for name resolution, the Windows XP ICS service has also been enhanced to
leverage Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) in Windows XP.

ICS participates in the UPnP network as a device hosted on Windows XP,

announcing its presence on the network periodically. Windows XP ICS clients
use UPnP to detect and locate ICS hosts on the network. Once discovered,
UPnP is used to access and control the ICS host.

The system running ICS broadcasts information about the status of the service
to the network, including connection status, uptime, and statistics. ICS will also
broadcast whenever there is a change in the service’s state, such as
connection or disconnection.

The client can then use UPnP to perform various actions against ICS. These
actions include the ability to connect or disconnect ICS, to list network address
translation port mappings, or to create or modify port mappings. This enables
clients internal to the network to accept incoming connections.

For more information on ICS, refer to the Windows XP online help.

Network Bridging Support

When building a network in a home or small office, you may find that a
particular network medium works well in one area of the network, but not in
another. For example, several computers may be located near telephone jacks
enabling them to be connected using HomePNA networking devices. Other
computers may be nowhere near a phone jack, requiring selection of another
network medium such as wireless. Many medium types are supported by
Windows XP, including Ethernet, Phoneline, Wireless and IEEE 1394.

Traditionally, connecting these networks together would require configuring

multiple IP address sub-networks and routers to connect the different mediums
together. The Network Bridge enables a Windows XP system to act as a bridge
for these multiples network mediums. When multiple network connections are
added to a Windows XP system and the Network Setup Wizard used to
configure the system, the Network Bridge will automatically bridge the networks
for you.

This results in a network configuration consisting of a single, easily configured

network segment connecting all network mediums. The Windows XP Network
Bridge will forward packets on the appropriate segments based on the device

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address and maintain information about what system is on which physical
medium.

For more information on the Network Bridge, refer to the Windows XP online
help.

Quality of Service (QoS) Enhancement for Home Networks

When a home network is connected to a corporate or other network through a
slow link, such as a dial-up line, a situation can exist that will increase the delay
on traffic traversing the slow link.

If the receiving client is running on a relatively fast network (100Mb/s Ethernet

for example) behind an Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) box and the server
this receiver is communicating with behind the remote access box is using a
fast network, the mismatch exists. In this scenario, the receiver’s receive
window is set to a large value based on the speed of the link connected to. The
sender starts out sending at a slow rate, but since packets aren’t lost,
eventually increases to sending nearly a full windows size of packets.,

This can affect the performance of other TCP connections that traverse the
same network, making their packets wait in this potentially large queue. If
packet loss occurs, a full windows size has to be retransmitted further
congesting the link.

The solution to this is to have the ICS box on the edge of the network set the
receive window to a smaller size appropriate to the slow link, overriding the
receiver’s specification. This setting will not adversely affect traffic as the
window size is being set as it would were the receiver connected directly to the
slow link. The QoS packet scheduler component running on the ICS box makes
this window adjustment.

For more information on the QoS packet scheduler, refer to the Windows XP
online help. Additional information on QoS can be found in the Windows 2000
technical library at
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/library/technologies/communications/de
fault.asp

Network Setup Wizard

Windows XP provides you with a Network Setup wizard to ease the task of
setting up your network. This wizard allows you to configure the Internet
connection the computers on your network will use, enable the Internet
Connection Firewall, configure the network adapters on your computer and
enable the Network Bridge if appropriate, share files and printers and name
your computers. The network setup wizard can be run on the Windows 98,
Windows ME and Windows XP computers on your network using the CD or a
floppy disk.

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For more information on the Network Setup Wizard, refer to the Windows XP
online help.

Network Diagnostics Features

Network diagnostics features were added to Windows XP to support diagnosing
network problems. With increasing numbers of people setting up small
networks, these features enable troubleshooting of what can be complex
problems by nearly any level user.

 The Network Diagnostics Web Page and NetSh helper – The Network
Diagnostics web page can be instantiated from multiple locations,
including the Network Connections folder, the Tools section of Help and
Support, or the Help and Support detailed information section on either
troubleshooting or networking. This web page makes it easy to retrieve
important information about the local computer and the network it is
connected to. The web page also includes various tests for
troubleshooting network problems. In addition, a NetSh helper DLL is
provided to enable execution of more extensive tests than the web
page, but from a command line. This helper is accessed from the ‘diag’
context of NetSh.

 Network Connections Support Tab – The Status page for each network
connection in the Network Connections folder now includes a Support
tab. From this tab, information and tasks previously provided in
Windows through the IP configuration tool, Winipcfg.exe, are provided.
Part of this includes the Repair option, used to try and reset your
network connection to a working state.

 Network Connection Repair Link – Sometimes the computers network

configuration can get into a state that prohibits network communication,
but can be repaired through a set of common procedures such as
renewing the IP address and DNS name registrations. To avoid having
to take these steps by hand, a Repair link has been added to the
network connection’s context menu. Choosing this option causes a
series of steps to be taken that could very likely solve communication
problems but are known not to cause worse problems.

 Task Manager Networking Tab – A Networking tab has been added to

Task Manager that will display real time networking metrics for each
network adapter in the system. This tool will provide a quick look at how
the network is performing.

 Updated Command Line Network Diagnostics Tool – Part of the support

tools that come on the Windows XP installation CD, netdiag.exe is a
command line diagnostics tool enhanced from the version provided in
the Windows 2000 resource kit.

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For more information on Network Diagnostics, refer to the Windows XP online
help and the diagnostics tools described above.

UPnP Client Support

Windows XP includes complete support for Universal Plug and Play Control
Point applications.

A set of COM interfaces are available on Windows XP that allow an application

to discover UPnP devices on the network, retrieve information about those
devices and the services they provide, and control those services through
executing exposed methods. This UPnP implementation enables the
application to only be concerned about accessing the available devices and not
about UPnP specific protocols. A UI component can be added to enable UPnP
devices to be displayed in My Network Places.

For more information on UPnP, refer to the Windows XP online help and the
Windows Platform SDK.

Network Location Awareness and Winsock API Enhancements

Windows XP includes components that detect information about the network
the system is attached to. This allows for seamless configuration of the network
stack for that location. This information is also made available through a
Windows Sockets API, allowing applications to retrieve information about the
current network or be notified when the network information changes.

Components in Windows XP also use the network location to provide the

appropriate services. For example, the Network Setup wizard will use the
location information for multiple adapters in the system to figure out which
device is your connection to the Internet. The group policy for ICF is also
location aware. ICF will check to see if group policy is set, and then use
location information to determine how to apply the policy.

Additional Microsoft extensions to Windows Sockets have been added to

Windows XP. This includes ConnectEx() – Used to send a block of data after
establishing a connection and TransmitPackets() – Used to transmit in memory
and/or file data over a connected socket.

For more information on NLA and the Windows Sockets API, refer to the
Windows XP online help and the Windows Platform SDK.

Wireless LAN Enhancements

Several features and enhancements have been added to Windows XP to
improve the experience in deploying Wireless LAN networks. These
enhancements are summarized here.

Enhanced Ethernet and Wireless Security (IEEE 802.1X Support) – Previously

wireless LAN networking lacked an easy to deploy security solution with a key

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management system Microsoft and several Wireless LAN and PC vendors
worked with the IEEE to define IEEE 802.1X, a standard for port-based network
access control. This is applicable to Ethernet or Wireless LANs. Microsoft has
implemented IEEE 802.1X support in Windows XP and worked with wireless
LAN vendors to support the standard in their access points.

Wireless Zero Configuration – In conjunction with the wireless network adapter,

Windows XP can choose from available networks to configure connections to
preferred networks without user intervention. Settings for specific networks can
be saved and automatically used the next time that network is associated with.
In the absence of an infrastructure network, Windows XP can configure the
wireless adapter to use ad-hoc networking.

Wireless Roaming Support - Windows 2000 included enhancements for

detecting the availability of a network and acting appropriately. These
enhancements have been extended and supplemented in Windows XP to
support the transitional nature of a wireless network. Features added in
Windows XP include re-authentication when necessary and choosing from
multiple configuration options based on the network connected to.

IPv6 Development Stack

Windows XP includes a complete IP version 6 protocol stack. The stack is
intended as a development stack to enable and assist developers in making
their applications IPv6 capable. This allows for a head start in preparing for the
inevitable migration to IPv6 networks. A later version of Windows will include a
production level IPv6 protocol stack.

For more information on IPv6, refer to the Windows XP online help, the
Windows Platform SDK, the Windows 2000 technical library at
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/howitworks/communications/n
ameadrmgmt/introipv6.asp.

Remote Access uses Credential Manager “Key Ring”

Windows XP includes a Credential Manager Key Ring feature that maintains a
“key ring” containing multiple sets of different credentials that have been used
on the system. This allows you to access multiple networks (with different
credentials- username and password) at the same time, without having to
continually re-enter credentials in response to prompts. Information about the
network resource you are connecting to (such as the server name and domain
name) is used to select the appropriate credential on the key ring. Remote
Access participates in the key ring by adding a temporary default credential
whenever a dial-up or VPN connection is successfully established. This
credential contains the username and password that were used in setting up
the connection since these are often the same credentials that will enable
access to the resources on that network. This makes the experience of

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connecting to a remote network and using resources on both that network and
your local network seamless.

Connection Manager (CM) and Connection Manager

Administration Kit (CMAK) Updates
The Microsoft Connection Manager is client dialer and connection management
software that can be customized using the Connection Manager Administration
kit. CM and CMAK have been available in Windows for some time, and have
been updated and enhanced with Windows XP. The following changes have
been made.

 CMAK now includes UI additions that weren’t present in previous

versions. These additions allow administrations to configure the full
range of options and enables configuration of options beyond what is
available in the UI.
 CM now supports split tunneling – the ability to access a secure VPN
tunnel and still access the internet. Specific routes can be added for the
network just reached.

 CM has added a favorites feature that allows a user to save frequently

used settings. This could include, for example, settings for various
hotels you use while traveling.

 CM has added client side logging capability to aid in diagnosing

connection problems.

 CM now provides UI for callback. This wasn’t present in Windows 2000.

 The CM properties page now provides controlled access to a page for

ICS and ICF.

For more information on CM and CMAK, refer to the Windows XP online help.

PPPOE Client
Windows XP includes the ability to create connections using Point-to-Point
Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE). Using Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet
(PPPoE) and a broadband modem, LAN users can gain individual
authenticated access to high-speed data networks. By combining Ethernet and
Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), PPPoE provides an efficient way to create a
separate connection for each user to a remote server. Access, billing, and
choice of service are managed on a per-user basis, rather than a per-site basis.

Having this ability built into Windows XP allow you to leverage built in services
like Internet Connection Sharing and Internet Connection Firewall. It also
enables your connections to integrate seamlessly with Internet Explorer and
other Windows applications.

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For more information on the PPPOE client, refer to the Windows XP online help
or the Internet RFC 2516.

PVC Encapsulation – RFC 2684

Windows XP includes an implementation of Internet RFC 2684. This was added
to making DSL simpler for vendors to implement. The implementation is an
NDIS intermediate driver that looks like an Ethernet interface, but uses an
DSL/ATM PVC to carry Ethernet (or TCP/IP only) frames. This mechanism is
commonly used in the industry by carriers and others deploying DSL. With
Windows XP and an ATM miniport driver for a DSL device the deployment can
use the following protocol configurations.

 TCP/IP->PPPoA (PPP over ATM)->vendor xDSL ATM miniport

 TCP/IP->RFC2684 (4 encapsulation types)->vendor xDSL ATM

miniport
 TCP/IP->PPPoE (PPP over Ethernet)->RFC2684 (4 encapsulation
types)->vendor xDSL ATM miniport

In addition, 802.1X authentication can be added to the RFC 2684 Ethernet

interface. This variety of options meets the needs of a majority of DSL
deployments.

For More Information See:

IETF RFC 2684

NDIS 5.1 and Remote NDIS

The interface network cards and their drivers use to make the physical network
available to the operating system and protocols was enhanced in Windows XP.
Several enhancements were made, including:

 Plug and Play and Power Event Notification – Enables network card
miniport drivers to be notified of power or plug and play events. This
results in cleaner system operation during these events.

 Support for Send Cancellation – Allows network protocols to avoid

having to wait inordinate amounts of time for network packet send
requests to complete.

 Increased Statistics Capacity (64-bit statistic counters) – This

enhancement enables accurate network statistic displays, even on
today’s high speed network mediums.

 Performance Enhancements – Several enhancements were made to

speed up the critical network data paths and avoid unnecessary packet
copies.

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  Miscellaneous Changes – Several additional changes have been made
to support common needs or requests from driver developers or to
improve driver integrity.

Wake on LAN change – A change was made to Wake on LAN to allow you to
limit wake up packets to just magic packets (instead of protocol registered
packet patterns). This is now configurable on the Power Management tab of
the NIC device property page.

Remote NDIS is also included as part of Windows XP. Remote NDIS enables
the support of USB attached network devices without the installation of third
party drivers. Microsoft supplies the drivers required to communicate with the
network devices. This results in easier installation and a lessened chance of
system failure because of a poorly built or tested driver.

For more information on NDIS 5.1 and Remote NDIS, refer to the Windows XP
DDK and the following web pages:
http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/network/NDIS51.htm

http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/network/rmNDIS.htm

Internet Protocol over IEEE 1394 (IP/1394)

The ability to network computers and devices on IEEE 1394 using TCP/IP has
been added to Windows XP. With this capability, a new network medium is
available that is commonly used to connect audio and video equipment. This
feature includes enhancements in Windows XP to perform translational bridging
of TCP/IP frames between IEEE 1394 and the other IEEE 802 interfaces. To do
this, Windows XP uses the Network Bridge already discussed.

For More Information See:

IETF RFC 2734

Improved Network Media Support

Support for some of the newest network devices has been added to Windows
XP and is supported out of the box. This includes support for many new Home
Networking devices.

Most of the new HomePNA (Phoneline) devices are supported. Most USB
connected network devices are supported in Windows XP, some using Remote
NDIS eliminating the need for additional drivers.

Support for 802.11 wireless devices has improved from previous operating
system releases. Many of these devices also support wireless zero
configuration and roaming features in Windows XP.

The modem support in Windows has been extended in Windows XP to include

many soft modems.

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IrCOMM Modem Driver for IrDA
The IrCOMM modem driver in Windows XP will allow a user to use their
infrared enabled cell phone as a modem. When the cell phone is placed next to
the infrared port, it will be enumerated and an appropriate driver installed (or a
generic driver if the model is not recognized). A cell phone can then be used
just like any other modem to create a network connection..

For more information on the IrCOMM and IrDA, refer to the Windows XP online
help.

TAPI 3.1 and TAPI Service Providers (TSP)

Previous Windows operating systems shipped with earlier versions of the
Telephony API (TAPI), the most recent being Windows 2000 shipping with TAPI
3.0. TAPI enables applications to be created that provide various types of
telephony services to users. Windows XP includes TAPI 3.1.
TAPI 3.1 supports the Microsoft Component Object Model and provides a set of
COM objects to the programmer. This enables the use of any COM compatible
programming application and scripting languages to write telephony
applications.

Also included in Windows XP are TAPI service providers (TSPs) that provide
functionality for H.323 based IP telephony and IP multicast audio and video
conferencing on TCP/IP networks. This is in addition to the TSPs provided with
earlier versions of Windows. The H.323 TSP and media service provider (MSP)
provide support for H.323 version 2 functionality.

Also provided with TAPI 3.1:

 File Terminals: Allows applications to record streaming data (such as

speech or video) to a file and play this recorded data back to a stream.

 Pluggable Terminals: Allows a 3rd party to add new terminal object that
can be used by any MSP.

 USB Phone TSP: Allows an application to control a USB phone and

use it as a streaming endpoint.

 Auto Discovery of TAPI Servers: Allows clients to discover telephony

servers available in the network.

Additionally, for H.323, the following supplementary services (richer call control
features) have been implemented.

 Call Hold Service (ITU-T Recommendation H.450-2)

 Call Transfer Service (ITU-T Recommendation H.450-2)

 Call Diversion Services (ITU-T Recommendation H.450-3)

 Call Park and Pickup Service (ITU-T Recommendation H.450-5)

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 For More Information

For more information on TAPI 3.1 and TSPs, refer to the Windows XP online
help and the Windows XP resource kit.

Real Time Communication (RTC) Client APIs

We provide a core set of APIs and the underlying implementation to enable a
rich PC to PC communications experience. The RTC Client APIs provide the
interface into a full real time communication infrastructure to provide instant
messaging, presence, audio/video communications, white boarding and
application sharing.

ISVs can build their applications on this infrastructure to provide a rich user to
user communications experience. Several components of the operating system
will also use this infrastructure, including Messenger and PC Health.

In addition to PC to PC communications, the API also provides a way for the

application to enable PC to phone and phone to phone telephony features.

For more information on the RTC client API, refer to the Windows Platform
SDK.

For the latest information on Windows XP, check out our Web site at
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp.

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