Deprecated Connection Types

The following connection technologies supported in Windows XP were deprecated in Windows Vista and are no longer available in Windows 7:

• X.25
• Microsoft Ethernet permanent virtual circuit (PVC)
• Direct cable connection using a serial, parallel, universal serial bus (USB), or IEEE 1394 cable

Note Most types of network connections available in Windows 7 support IPv6 out of the box and can be used to establish pure-IPv6 connectivity with remote servers or networks (provided they support incoming IPv6 connections). More information concerning IPv6 support for network connections in Windows 7 is provided throughout this tutorial where appropriate.

Configuring VPN Connections

Windows 7 supports both outgoing and incoming VPN connections. For outgoing connections, Windows 7 is the client and connects to a VPN server on a remote network, usually the corporate intranet. For incoming connections, Windows 7 acts as a server and allows a remote client computer to establish a VPN connection between the two computers. In enterprise environments, outgoing VPN connections are commonly used to allow mobile users to securely access resources on the corporate intranet from remote locations. Incoming VPN connections to client computers are rarely used in enterprise environments, so most of this discussion deals with outbound connections only. For information on how to create and configure an inbound connection on Windows 7, see the section titled "Configuring Incoming Connections" later in this tutorial.