New and Enhanced Features in Windows 7
Network Connectivity
- TCP/IP Networking: In Windows 7 the standard protocol for computers to format and exchange
data across a network is TCP/IP. TCP/IP is a global protocol that defines several key networking architecture features.
- Windows 7 supports IPv6. The older standard of IPv4 has been the most commonly implemented form of TCP/IP. IPv4 suffers from a lack of features that limit what applications and computers can accomplish. The only
way to eliminate those limits is to use the enhanced IPv6 standard.
- Knowing that it will take time for network systems to change from IPv4 to IPv6, Microsoft has provided a software client to support IPv4 to IPv6 translation called Teredo.
- Network Location Awareness Service (NLA)
- Operating system and its applications must be aware of the networks around them. One computer can have more than one network available to send and receive data from. An application may require only one of those connected networks, and it should avoid the others.
- Applications can track what network services are available using the NLA service as a central reference. Not only can applications use the service to be aware of available networks, but NLA can also report the status and performance of each network.
- Can report status and performance of each network.
- In Windows 7 each network connection can have its own network location profile, and they do not need to be the same one.
- Windows Firewall
- Windows firewall software has been enhanced to restrict connections in both directions - incoming and outgoing.
- Each type of network location profile in Windows 7 can have its own customized Windows firewall settings.
- Connections can be defined as permitted or restricted when traffic is inspected by the Windows firewall.
- Location Aware Printing: Most computers only use a single network connection at a time.
- Windows 7 can assign a new default printer based on the network location when the network connection is established. Once printers are mapped to locations, Windows automatically configures the default printer.