The WSiX Network Connection

Windows Server "8" Beta User and Computer Certificates Deployment guide now available on the Web and Download Center

James McIllece — Thu, 17 May 2012 20:59:29 GMT

Hi there

I've mentioned the Core Network Guide and the Server Certificates deployment guide in the last couple of blog posts, and today I'm announcing the publication of the Windows Server "8" Beta Core Network Companion Guide: Computer and User Certificate Deployment.

You can view this guide on the Web at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj129712

You can also download it from the Microsoft Download Center in Word format at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29861

Computer or User certificates are required, in addition to NPS server certificates, when you deploy either EAP-TLS or PEAP-TLS as your network access authentication method. This guide shows how to autoenroll computer certificates and user certificates to computers that are members of the Domain Computers group, and to users that are members of Domain Users. You can also create custom groups and autoenroll certificates to members of the custom groups.

You can also deploy user certificates on smart cards, however that deployment method is not shown in this particular guide. In this guide, the certificates are stored in the certificate store on the local computer after Group Policy is refreshed.

If you enjoy using this and other guides - or if you have suggestions on how to improve them - please use the feedback form on the Web version of the guide to provide feedback. Thanks!

Server Certificate Deployment Guide now available in HTML format on the Web

James McIllece — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:03:06 GMT

For those of you who prefer to read content on the Web rather than downloading a Word version of the guide, the Core Network Companion Guide: Server Certificate Deployment is now available in HTML format in the Windows Server "8" Technical Library, at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj125379.aspx

New! Core Network Companion Guide: Deploying Server Certificates

James McIllece — Wed, 02 May 2012 23:43:26 GMT

The Windows Server “8” Beta Core Network Companion Guide: Deploying Server Certificates is now available in Word format in the Microsoft Download Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=251761.

This guide explains how to build upon your core network by deploying server certificates for computers that are running Network Policy Server (NPS), Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS), or both. Server certificates are required when you deploy certificate-based authentication methods with Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) and Protected EAP (PEAP) for network access authentication.

Using these authentication methods is most secure when you deploy 802.1X-capable wireless access points and Ethernet switches, as well as VPN servers and other network access servers/RADIUS clients.

Core Network Guide for Windows Server "8" Beta

James McIllece — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:37:00 GMT

The Core Network Guide for Windows Server "8" Beta is now live on the Web in HTML format at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh911995.aspx, and in Word format in the Microsoft Download Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=248606.

A Windows Server core network provides you with many benefits, including the following.

Core protocols for network connectivity between computers and other Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) compatible devices. TCP/IP is a suite of standard protocols for connecting computers and building networks. TCP/IP is network protocol software provided with Microsoft® Windows® operating systems that implements and supports the TCP/IP protocol suite.
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server automatic IP addressing. Manual configuration of IP addresses on all computers on your network is time-consuming and less flexible than dynamically providing computers and other devices with IP address leases from a DHCP server.
Domain Name System (DNS) name resolution service. DNS allows users, computers, applications, and services to find the IP addresses of computers and devices on the network by using the Fully Qualified Domain Name of the computer or device.
A forest, which is one or more Active Directory domains that share the same class and attribute definitions (schema), site and replication information (configuration), and forest-wide search capabilities (global catalog).
A forest root domain, which is the first domain created in a new forest. The Enterprise Admins and Schema Admins groups, which are forest-wide administrative groups, are located in the forest root domain. In addition, a forest root domain, as with other domains, is a collection of computer, user, and group objects that are defined by the administrator in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS). These objects share a common directory database and security policies. They can also share security relationships with other domains if you add domains as your organization grows. The directory service also stores directory data and allows authorized computers, applications, and users to access the data.
A user and computer account database. The directory service provides a centralized user accounts database that allows you to create user and computer accounts for people and computers that are authorized to connect to your network and access network resources, such as applications, databases, shared files and folders, and printers.

A core network also allows you to scale your network as your organization grows and IT requirements change. For example, with a core network you can add domains, IP subnets, remote access services, wireless services, and other features and server roles provided by Windows Server® “8” Beta.

Windows Server "8" Beta Networking Content

Greg Lindsay — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:45:00 GMT

Check out all the great new content for Windows Server "8" Beta!

Networking

802.1X Authenticated Wired Access

Managing the Wired Network (IEEE 802.3) Policies Settings

BranchCache

Domain Name System (DNS)

Step-by-Step: Demonstrate DNSSEC in a Test Lab

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)

Hyper-V Virtual Switch

Unified Tracing

IP Address Management (IPAM)

Step-by-Step: Configure IPAM to Manage Your IP Address Space

Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)

Load Balance and Failover (LBFO) for Network Adapters

Print and Document Services

Quality of Service (QoS)

Remote Access (DirectAccess, Routing and VPN)

Telephony Server and the Telephony API

Windows Firewall with Advanced Security

Windows Internet Name Service (WINS)

Network Access Protection (NAP) Guides Available in .doc Format

Greg Lindsay — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:27:56 GMT

In response to requests for downloadable versions of the NAP Design Guide and the NAP Deployment Guide, I've posted *.doc versions of these guides on the Download Center.

Visit the following link: Network Access Protection (NAP) Design and Deployment Guides to download these, and thanks for checking out NAP!

Also, don't forget to visit the Network Access Protection TechNet Forum if you have questions about NAP.

Greg Lindsay

Senior Technical Writer

Windows PowerShell Script: Test-Port

Joe Davies — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:28:00 GMT

In this blog post, Brian Posey highlighted Windows PowerShell as an essential Windows networking skill going forward. In a new series of blog posts, we will highlight existing networking-based Windows PowerShell scripts in the Script Center Repository on TechNet and show how they can be used for basic or advanced networking capabilities either at the Windows PowerShell command prompt or within your own custom scripts.

Test-Port (http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/97119ed6-6fb2-446d-98d8-32d823867131)

This Windows PowerShell script in the Script Center Repository tests a TCP or UDP port through the Test-Port function with the following parameters:

-computer: Specifes the computer or computers to test.

-port: Specifes the port number.

-tcp: Specifies that you want to test a TCP port.

-udp: Specifies that you want to test a UDP port

-tcptimeout: Specifies how long to wait in milliseconds when testing a TCP port.

-udptimeout: Specifies how long to wait in milliseconds when testing a UDP port.

You can test Test-Port by copying the code into the Windows PowerShell command prompt (click Copy Code on the script page, then right-click in the Windows PowerShell command prompt to paste it in). Once entered as a function, you can use the Test-Port function directly from the command line (example: PS C:\users\default> test-port -computer dc1 -port 389 -tcp). Alternately, paste this code into your Windows PowerShell script.

For those of you honing your Windows PowerShell scripting skills, notice how this script includes a thorough comment section at the beginning clearly describing each parameter and giving lots of examples.

Enjoy!

Joe Davies
Principal Writer
Windows Server Information Experience

"Network Access Protection (NAP) Technical Overview" presentation at the Seattle Windows Networking Users Group

Joe Davies — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:02:38 GMT

On Wednesday, Nov 2, I presented an technical overview of the Network Access Protection (NAP) technology to the Seattle Windows Networking User Group. We talked about the purpose of NAP, the different NAP enforcement methods, and then dove into the architecture and components of NAP, demonstrating autoremediation and limited access behaviors for a remote access VPN connection.

Here is my presentation. For the supporting text, see the Introduction to Network Access Protection and Network Access Protection Architecture white papers on the NAP TechCenter.

Enjoy!

Joe Davies
Principal Writer
Windows Server Information Experience (WS iX)

Windows PowerShell Script: List Network Adapter Configuration Properties

Joe Davies — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 20:06:00 GMT

In this blog post, Brian Posey highlighted Windows PowerShell as an essential Windows networking skill going forward. In a new series of blog posts, we will highlight existing networking-based Windows PowerShell scripts in the Script Center Repository on TechNet and show how they can be used for basic or advanced networking capabilities, either at the Windows PowerShell command prompt or within your own custom scripts.

List Network Adapter Configuration Properties (http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/32b0cccd-aaf8-42b5-8abd-40b8438cfff4)

This Windows PowerShell script accesses the attributes of the Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration WMI object and then displays them individually with a series of Write-Host statements.

You can test this script by copying the code into a text editor (click Copy Code on the script page, then paste it), saving it as a .PS1 file, then executing the script by specifying its path and .ps1 file name (example: PS C:\users\default> c:\users\joedavies\netadapt.ps1).

For those of you honing your Windows PowerShell programming skills, notice how this script loads the $objWin32NAC object with the information in the Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration WMI object and then uses a foreach statement to display each attribute, identified with a "." and the name of the attribute (for example, .DefaultIPGateway).

Enjoy!

Joe Davies
Principal Writer
Windows Server Information Experience

Links to //build/ conference sessions on Jose Berreto's blog

Joe Davies — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:27:16 GMT

At the Windows //build/ conference last month, Windows Server product teams presented a number of sessions on Windows Server 8 topics, some of them networking-related.

Check out this post on Jose Berreto's blog for links to the recorded sessions: Links to //build/ sessions on Storage, Networking and Hyper-V

Jose is a Principal Program Manager in the File Systems and Storage team.

Thanks, Jose!

Enjoy.

Joe Davies
Principal Writer
Windows Server Information Experience (WS iX)

"Give Microsoft’s Scalable Networking Pack Another Look" article in Windows IT Pro Magazine

Joe Davies — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:20:00 GMT

Tod Edwards, my colleague in Microsoft's Customer Support Services (CSS) for many years, has published the following article in Windows iT Pro Magazine:

Give Microsoft’s Scalable Networking Pack Another Look

In this article, he describes the Receive-Side Scaling (RSS) and TCP Chimney Offload features and the best practices recommendations for using them.

Thanks, Tod!

Read and enjoy.

Joe Davies
Principal Writer
Windows Server Information Experience (WS iX)

"How to disable IP version 6 (IPv6)" KB article updated for Microsoft recommendations

Joe Davies — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:58:31 GMT

The How to disable IP version 6 (IPv6) or its specific components in Windows 7, in Windows Vista, in Windows Server 2008 R2, and in Windows Server 2008 Knowledge Base article has been updated with the following:

The recommendation against disabling IPv6, which includes a link to the text explaining why in the IPv6 for Microsoft Windows: Frequently Asked Questions article
If you must disable IPv6, the recommendation to use the DisabledComponents registry value, rather than the properties of a network interface in the Network Connections folder

These changes address frequently asked questions about disabling IPv6 (such as: If you recommend against it, why is there a KB article that describes how to do it?) and customer confusion about the behavior of the properties of a network interface and the DisabledComponents registry value.

Enjoy!

Joe Davies
Principal Writer
Windows Server Information Experience

Windows PowerShell Script: Resolve IP address from Hostname

Joe Davies — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:47:26 GMT

Resolve IP address from Hostname

This Windows PowerShell script in the Script Center Repository performs host name to IP address resolution through the Get-IPAddress function with the following parameters:

-HostName : A variable that defines the host name being resolved.

-IPV6only : A switch to list only the IPv6 addresses resolved for the name.

-IPV4only : A swtich to list only the IPv4 addresses resolved for the name.

You can test Get-IPAddress by copying the code into the Windows PowerShell command prompt (click Copy Code on the script page, then right-click in the Windows PowerShell command prompt to paste it in). Once entered as a function, you can use the Get-IPAddress function directly from the command line (example: PS C:\users\default> Get-IPAddress example). Alternately, paste this code into your Windows PowerShell script.

For those of you honing your PowerShell programming skills, notice how this script uses the -IPV6only and -IPV4only parameters and separate if{} sections to list the resolved IPv6 addresses, IPv4 addresses, or both.

Enjoy!

Joe Davies
Principal Writer
Windows Server Information Experience

Networking features of Windows Server 8 highlighted in PCMag.com article

Joe Davies — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 23:00:00 GMT

Check out this article on PCMag.com, 10 Killer Windows Server 8 Features for IT Pros.

Two of the ten killer features are networking-based:

NIC teaming The ability to bundle sets of network adapters together and make them appear as a single network adapter for bandwidth aggregation and fault tolerance.
Hyper-V Network Switch The ability to extend the Hyper-V switch component to add filtering, traffic flow analysis, etc.

Enjoy!

Joe Davies
Principal Writer
Windows Server Information Experience

Cool post about tracking DNS record deletion by Sneh Shah

Joe Davies — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:48:44 GMT

Hey DNS fans,

Microsoft Support Engineer Sheh Shah has published Tracking DNS Record Deletion in the Microsoft Enterprise Networking Team blog. This post describes in great technical detail the process of enabling auditing and viewing the audit events for Active Directory-integrated DNS zones.

Very cool, in-depth technical content from those who know it best. Check it out.

Thanks Sneh!

Joe Davies
Principal Writer

Networking topics updated based on your feedback-September 2011

Joe Davies — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:43:04 GMT

In this blog post, I described how you can provide us with ratings and comments for our topics on TechNet and MSDN through the Click to Rate and Give Feedback facility.

Recently, the following Windows networking topics were updated based on your comments:

All of these topics contained a link to the download version of the book, which has been updated for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. However, the link text was somewhat misleading. It now reads:

For a download of the entire "TCP/IP Fundamentals for Microsoft Windows" online book, which contains a version of this chapter that has been updated for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, click here.

If you see something that needs to be corrected or clarified, please let us know by describing the specific problems and the changes that need to be made through Click to Rate and Give Feedback.

Thank you for providing the feedback.

Joe Davies
Principal Writer
Windows Server Information Experience

IPv6 Survival Guide is the featured article in the TechNet Wiki

Joe Davies — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:47:08 GMT

The IPv6 Survival Guide (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/ipv6-survival-guide.aspx) is featured on the TechNet Wiki home page.

The IPv6 Survival Guide contains an organized set of links to Microsoft and third-party resources on IPv6. Because this is a TechNet Wiki topic, you can add resources that you have found valuable in learning about or evaluating IPv6 for your networks.

Joe Davies
Principal Writer
Windows Server Information Experience

Cool set of topics on the Windows Firewall service by David Pracht

Joe Davies — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 20:53:03 GMT

Hey Windows Firewall fans,

Senior Support Escalation Engineer David Pracht has published the following set of articles about understanding and troubleshooting why the Windows Firewall service fails to start in the Microsoft Enterprise Networking Team blog:

Very cool, in-depth technical content from those who know it best and can explain it to us mere mortals.

Thanks David!

Joe Davies
Principal Writer

New Video: Running SetPrint.ps1 on Windows Server 2008 R2

DocGuy - MSFT — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:56:26 GMT

We posted a new video at TechNet Edge:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/running-setprint-ps1-on-windows-server-2008-r2

This video shows you how to run a PowerShell script that sets default settings for all the print queues on your Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 print server.

The script can set the following default settings: color, mono, twosided, onesided, and staple.

You can find a copy of setprint.ps1 on the TechNet Wiki or the TechNet Script Center Repository.

Challenge: Make improvements to this script and repost to the Wiki!

"Change Driver Installation Security for Printers Deployed Using Group Policy" article updated based on your feedback

Joe Davies — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:51:39 GMT

The topic titled Change Driver Installation Security for Printers Deployed Using Group Policy has been updated by Senior Technical Writer Vic Horne based on your feedback. Vic made a technical correction about the location of the Point and Print Restrictions Group Policy setting and added information about why the setting exists in both the User Configuration and Computer Configuration trees. Thanks Vic!

If you see something that needs to be corrected or clarified, please let us know by describing the specific problems and the changes that need to be made through the Click to Rate and Give Feedback facility, as described in this blog post,

Thank you for providing the feedback.

Joe Davies
Principal Writer
Windows Server Information Experience

"Windows Server: The Power of Integration" TechNet Magazine article highlights the DirectAccess with NAP solution guide and Test Lab Guides

Joe Davies — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 20:25:32 GMT

Windows Server: The Power of Integration in TechNet Magazine describes how you can use multiple features and technologies of the Windows client and server platforms to create new value in the form of a solution that addresses an IT capability or business need. This article highlights the DirectAccess with Network Access Protection (NAP) Solution guide that I authored and blogged about here.

This article also shines a light on the use of Test Lab Guides to build out multi-technology or multi-product solutions in a test lab environment.

Thanks to article author Joshua Hoffman for the confirmation of the value of both solution documentation and Test Lab Guides.

Enjoy.

Joe Davies
Principal Writer
Windows Server Information Experience

Important post in the IPv6 blog about the upcoming World IPv6 Day

Joe Davies — Fri, 20 May 2011 20:19:00 GMT

Greetings IPv6 fans,

IPv6 Program Manager Christopher Palmer just posted World IPv6 Day and Windows in the IPv6 Product Team blog.

Check this out for information about World IPv6 Day on Wednesday, June 8, 2011. It includes an IPv6 Connectivity Analysis tool that tells you if you are ready.

IPv6 is coming...are you getting ahead of the curve?

Joe Davies
Principal Writer
Windows Server Information Experience

DirectAccess Learning Roadmap wins Excellence Award at the International STC

Joe Davies — Wed, 18 May 2011 15:07:00 GMT

In this blog post, I described how the Windows Server networking writing team won six awards from the Puget Sound chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC). The STC is an independent professional association that advances the arts and sciences of technical communication.

I am proud to announce that the DirectAccess Learning Roadmap has also won an Award of Excellence at the International STC.

And there was much rejoicing...

See Learning Roadmaps in the TechNet Wiki for more information about this new type of content.

Joe Davies
Principal Writer
Windows Server Information Experience

Learning Roadmaps template page in the TechNet Wiki is now available

Joe Davies — Thu, 12 May 2011 15:04:16 GMT

To help you develop and publish your own Learning Roadmap in the TechNet Wiki, the Learning Roadmaps template provides you with the basic structure of a Learning Roadmap topic and boilerplate text for filling out the Prerequisite, Level 100, Level 200, Level 300, and Level 400 sections.

Create, publish, but by all means, enjoy.

Joe Davies
Principal Technical Writer
Windows Server Information Experience

The "IPv6 Test Lab Extension: Demonstrating an IPv6-only Environment" is now available

Joe Davies — Mon, 09 May 2011 15:22:00 GMT

The Demonstrating an IPv6-only Environment extension for the IPv6 Test Lab is now available.

With this extension, you reconfigure DC1, the native IPv6 router for the Corpnet and Corpnet2 subnets, to stop advertising address prefixes and act as a DHCPv6 server to assign IPv6 addresses and the IPv6 address of a DNS server (DC1). Then, you disable IPv4 on all interfaces on the Contoso intranet and test Active Directory, Web, and file sharing to show that it works the same as the Base Configuration test lab (which is an IPv4-only environment).

You can snapshot this new configuration and use it to test whether your applications will work properly in an IPv6-only environment.

With this extension, the Test Lab Guide (TLG) stack for the IPv6 test lab looks like the following:

Enjoy!

Joe Davies
Principal Writer
Windows Server Information Experience