Windows Vista -> Control Panel-> Network and Internet
Windows Vista -> Control Panel -> Network and Internet
My mission on this page is to acquaint you with what's new underneath Vista's Networking
and Internet
Icon.
New versions of Microsoft operating systems always have more places. That is
more menus, more sub-menus and more buttons. The law of inertia says that at first, people rarely like these extra options. I have to give it to Microsoft, they always perform the same trick, within a
short period you too believe that the new way is better, and if you go back to XP, all the menus seem so clunky.
Six areas of Vista Network and Internet (Control Panel)
(Click on the screenshot for an even bigger picture of: Control Panel -> Network and Internet)
Vista
Network and Sharing Center
A great place to learn about your network settings and also to troubleshoot with Windows Network Diagnostics. See more here.
Internet Options
This is where you can configure the Internet Explore 7 (IE7) settings. It's the same menu as you see with Internet Explorer, Tools and Options. See more here
The principle of Offline Files is the same as for XP, users can take away copies of their documents. Offline File settings are useful for laptop uses to
synchronize files when they return to their office network.
No significant changes from XP's, the Windows Firewall icon is still in the same part of
the Control Panel. It strikes me that this a setting for home uses, or small offices rather
than for regular domain users where the corporate.
Thus utility makes it easy to check the health of a router or firewall.
Check the real-time performance, and availability statistics, for any
device on your network. Get started with an extensive collection
of "out-of-the-box" monitors for popular network devices. Give Network
Monitor a whirl - it's free.
Download your free Network Device Monitor
For large networks where it's beneficial to contact a subset of the users. People Near Me is
designed for a new program called Windows Collaboration. Rather like Net Meeting, the idea with Windows Collaboration is that up to ten people can share a desktop and exchange ideas via notes.
This new center provides the technology to create links with other computers device and network locations. Once created you can manage and troubleshoot synchronization. When users have multiple
devices, they need a mechanism to ensure then when files change on one device, they Synchronize with older versions of the same file held on a different device. See more on Sync
Center
Network and Internet Detractors
Some people find Vista's networking harder to perform old tricks in the
new menus, there is a feeling that it now requires more steps to carry out the same actions as before, for example changing an IP address requires more clicks than in XP. My view is simply that this is the price to
pay for the Vista Network and Internet supporting more features. Microsoft decided to expand the control panel and consequently has added an extra layer just to organize all the networking areas; the
result is that some tasks take more mouse clicks to drill down to the action points.
Kiwi Syslog Server
Syslog's success and universal adoption is based on simplicity, it's
just not fussy about what sort of event log messages it carries.
As a result syslog has become the de-facto standard for system
management and event reporting in heterogeneous networks. See more
about the free Kiwi
Syslog Server network utility
Summary of the Vista Network and Internet
The old XP network icon has expanded into eight areas. All the old
XP control panel settings are still there it's just
that Vista has extra levels of menus. Watch out for new diagnostic troubleshooting tools, one day they will help you solve a network problem.
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Guy Recommends:
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identifying whether the
root cause is faulty equipment, or resource overload. Give NPM a try.
