Network Awareness

More applications are connecting to the Internet to look for updates, download real-time information, and facilitate collaboration between users. However, creating applications that can adapt to changing network conditions has been difficult for developers. Network Awareness enables applications to sense changes to the network to which the computer is connected, such as closing a mobile PC at work and then opening it at a coffee shop wireless hotspot. This enables Windows Vista and Windows 7 to alert applications of network changes. The application can then behave differently, providing a seamless experience.

For example, Windows Firewall with Advanced Security can take advantage of Network Awareness to automatically allow incoming traffic from network management tools when the computer is on the corporate network but block the same traffic when the computer is on a home network or wireless hotspot. Network Awareness can therefore provide flexibility on your internal network without sacrificing security when mobile users travel.

Applications can also take advantage of Network Awareness. For example, if a user disconnects from a corporate internal network and then connects to his or her home network, an application could adjust security settings and request that the user establish a VPN connection to maintain connectivity to an intranet server. New applications can go offline or online automatically as mobile users move between environments. In addition, software vendors can integrate their software into the network logon process more easily because Windows Vista and Windows 7 enable access providers to add custom connections for use during logon.

Network Awareness benefits only applications that take advantage of the new API and does not require any management or configuration. For Network Awareness to function, the Network Location Awareness and Network List Service services must be running.