Paula Rojas Blog

You don’t need me to tell you how important networking is to the Vista environment. As much as security threats enter your computer (potentially) from the outside world, one way that these threats are combated, somewhat ironically, is to establish a connection to the Internet so that software updates such asWindows Vista hotfixes and antivirus programdefinitions can always be brought up to date. This thread is all about networking.

When discussing the thread’s opening objective, we’ll look at how to establish a network connection using the new Vista utility, the Network and Sharing Center.We’ll look at the new simplified interface this utility provides and see howit can be used to help secure a system. We’ll then examine how to troubleshoot the network connection.Here we will have the option of using the new tools provided byWindows Vista or using some other utilities that have been around for a while.

Just because they’re not making their debut with Windows Vista doesn’t make them any less important. This is one of the few objectiveswhere you should focus asmuch on the old as the new. The thread will close with a look at two ways Vista users can leverage the network connection more specifically, connectivity to the Internet to offer help to friends, family, or even coworkers (many taking this test will be network administrators themselves, naturally) with a built-in tool called Remote Assistance. This same tool can also be used to initiate help requests.Also,we’ll look at how to access our Vista Desktop from the road with Remote Desktop. This tool can be a real life saver when you’re traveling and realize you’ve left an important PowerPoint presentation back on the office computer.We’ll look at how to set it up and at the requirements for use.

First things first. Before you can use the network with utilities such as Remote Desktop and Remote Assistance, you must first establish a network connection. You most certainly won’t get a whole lot of use out of your Vista machine without a network connection, and you almost certainly won’t be able to pass the 620 exam without a complete understanding of the Network and Sharing Center. The Network and Sharing Center is new to Windows Vista and is the hub for configuring all network connectivity behavior. If you have a Windows Vista computer nearby, it would be a good idea right now to stop reading and open this utility before proceeding so that you’re better able to follow along it’s that vital to the exam.

Right away, it’s important to take note of a networking protocol called IP version 6. It isn’t a brand-new protocol it’s been around for about 10 years but you should probably be aware that Vista now includes native support for this latest version of an Internet Protocol numbering scheme. IP version 6 assigns 128-bit addressees inmuch the same way that network cards have 128-bitMedia Access Control (MAC) addresses. If your computer has an IPv6 address assigned, it might look like this:

fe80::5efe:192.168.2.4%19

You won’t need to know anything about configuring IPv6 on the exam other than possibly knowing about autoconfiguration (that’s the thing, by the way you don’t configure IPv6), but it certainly won’t hurt to recognize an IPv6 address when you see one. MAC addresses, by the way, look like this:

00:11:50:31:db:36

See the difference? One easy giveaway is that a MAC address starts with two hexadecimal values and then includes the colon (:). The IPv6 address begins with a group of four hexadecimal values before the first colon. But even though Vista includes support for this relatively new networking protocol, you’ll probably still end up using the older, 32-bit protocol version 4 to establish the vast majority of your network connections.