Windows® 7 Secrets®

Chapter 9. Networking and HomeGroup Sharing

In This Chapter

• Windows 7 networking features

• Understanding network locations

• Working with the Network and Sharing Center

• Using Network Maps

• Connecting to networks

• Setting up new connections and networks

• Managing network connections

• Using Network Explorer

• HomeGroup: Sharing folders, printers, and media libraries

Windows networking has come a long way since the days of Windows 95. Back then, the big news was the move to 32-bit computing, but Windows networking was still largely a heterogeneous affair, with Windows 95 supporting a confusing mix of networking technologies, including Banyan, LAN Manager, Novell NetWare, IPX/SPX, and a then-emerging dark horse called TCP/IP, which forms the underlying foundation for the Internet. Since then, the industry—and Windows along with it—has embraced TCP/IP-based networking as the de facto standard, and support for staples of the previous decade of networking—such as dial-up networking or Microsoft's workgroup-oriented NetBEUI protocol—have been either removed from Windows entirely or depreciated in anticipation of future removal.

Today, networking is all about TCP/IP, wireless, WAN, Ethernet connections, and pervasive connectivity; and Windows 7 is right there, as was its Windows 95 predecessor at the time, supporting all of the new and emerging networking technologies that are relevant now and in the future. If you made the transition from earlier versions of Windows XP to Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2), ...