Windows 7 / Networking

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Enhancements for Connecting Remote Users and Networks in Windows 7

Windows 7 builds on the foundation of Windows Vista by adding new features and enhancing existing features used for connecting remote users and networks. These improvements include the following:

• Support for a new tunneling protocol called Internet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2)
• Support for Mobility and Multihoming Protocol for Internet Key Exchange (MOBIKE), an extension of IKEv2 that allows VPN connections to change their reachable addresses without reestablishing security associations (SAs)
• VPN Reconnect, a new feature of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 that uses IKEv2 and MOBIKE to provide automatic and seamless switchover of an active VPN connection whenever the underlying Internet connection changes
• Automatic fallback to Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP) when an IKEv2 connection is attempted and fails
• Integration of remote access and VPN connections into the View Available Networks user interface (UI) to provide an improved connection dialing experience
• Support for allowing administrators to select the certificate to use for server authentication in SSTP
• DirectAccess, a new feature of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 that provides users with the experience of being seamlessly connected to the corporate network from any location where they have Internet access
• BranchCache, a new feature of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 that allows content from file servers and Web servers at a central office to be cached on computers at a local branch office, thus improving application response time and reducing wide area network (WAN) traffic
• Enhancements to the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) that improve the performance and quality of user experience for Remote Desktop sessions
• Mobile Broadband, which makes it easy to connect Windows 7 computers to the Internet using a wireless data card regardless of the cellular provider being used.

The sections that follow provide more information concerning some of these new features and enhancements, and information on some of the other improvements can be found in later sections of this tutorial.