Windows 7 / Networking

Managing Network Connections

In Windows 7, you can link to many different types of remote resources, including dial-up and broadband Internet services, dial-up and Internet-based virtual private networking (VPN), and the ethernet and wireless networking that are the subject of this tutorial. In Windows 7, all of these remote links are called network connections, and Windows 7 maintains a Network Connections window that lists all your network connections. Each network interface card (NIC) attached to your computer gets its own connection icon in the list, and you can use those icons to work with your network connections.

For example, you can rename a connection, disable an unused connection, switch a connection between using a dynamic and a static IP address, and find out a connection's Internet Protocol (IP) and Media Access Control (MAC) addresses. In this section, you learn about these and other tasks for wired connections. For more information about wireless connections, see "Managing Wireless Network Connections," later in this tutorial.

[Previous] [Contents] [Next]

In this tutorial:

  1. Setting a Small Network
  2. Setting Up a Peer-to-Peer Network
  3. Changing the Computer and Workgroup Name
  4. Connecting to a Wireless Network
  5. Working with Windows 7's Basic Network Tools and Tasks
  6. Accessing the Network and Sharing Center
  7. Setting Up a Homegroup
  8. Activating Homegroup Connections
  9. Creating a Homegroup
  10. Joining a Homegroup
  11. Accessing the Homegroup
  12. Changing Homegroup Settings
  13. Turning Off Homegroup Connections
  14. Viewing Network Computers and Devices
  15. Displaying a Network Map
  16. Viewing Network Status Details
  17. Customizing Your Network
  18. Managing Network Connections
  19. Opening the Network Connections Window
  20. Renaming a Network Connection
  21. Enabling Automatic IP Addressing
  22. Confirming That Windows 7 Is Configured for Dynamic IP Addressing
  23. Displaying the Computer's Current IP Address
  24. Setting Up a Static IP Address
  25. Displaying the Current DNS Addresses
  26. Specifying the Static IP Address
  27. Using a Network Connection to Wake Up a Sleeping Computer
  28. Disabling a Network Connection
  29. Managing Wireless Network Connections
  30. Opening the Manage Wireless Networks Window
  31. Creating an Ad Hoc Wireless Network
  32. Working with Wireless Connection Properties
  33. Modifying Connection Properties
  34. Modifying Security Properties
  35. Renaming Wireless Connections
  36. Reordering Wireless Connections
  37. Creating User-Specific Wireless Connections
  38. Removing Wireless Connections