Windows Server® 2008 Networking and Network Access Protection (NAP)

Planning and Design Considerations

Scalable networking features typically require the use of supported hardware. Some features require trade-offs, such as disabling software firewalls. Because of these costs, you must evaluate whether the benefits of each scalable networking feature outweigh the costs. The sections that follow guide you through the process of evaluating scalable networking features.

Evaluating Network Scalability Technologies

When evaluating specific features, consider the following:

• TCP Chimney Offload. TCP Chimney Offload will work only with NDIS 6.0 drivers on Windows Server 2008, NDIS 5.2 drivers on Windows Server 2003 with SP2, and compatible hardware. Therefore, if you have an NDIS 5.1 or earlier driver, or your network adapter ...