Five things you'll be glad to hear about Longhorn Server networking

Computerworld - With all of the coverage of Windows Vista and its many improvements for client desktops, it's easy to forget that an equally large team of developers is working on the next generation of Windows on the server. Many enhancements are slated for Longhorn Server and most are actually already checked into code and operational in the latest beta release. These benefits aren't incremental, either. Some represent significant improvements to the core Windows code base, and they will mean better reliability, faster network connections and easier management.

Here's a look at five new benefits of Longhorn Server that you will welcome with open arms.

1. The TCP/IP stack in Longhorn Server performs substantially better than the stack in previous versions of Windows. The new stack, touted as the Next Generation TCP/IP Stack, has been rewritten almost from scratch to squeeze every possible bit of performance out of your network connections.

Two prominent new features designed to boost efficiency are receive window auto-tuning and compound TCP. With receive window auto-tuning, Windows automatically adjusts the optimal receive window size on a regular basis, taking into account delays on the wire, average throughput speeds and other transmission performance statistics. The stack will adjust to allow receive windows up to 16MB in size, which significantly cuts down on wasted network bandwidth during transmissions.

Coordinating with the receive window auto-tuning is the compound TCP feature, which automatically adjusts the send window to best match the destination host's receive window, also dramatically cutting wasted network bandwidth. Microsoft claims that in internal testing, it cut in half very large file backups over a standard 1Gbit/sec. network connection.

2. Longhorn Server (and Windows Vista) will natively support IPv6 as a fully integrated component of the operating system. You may have been frustrated at attempting to deploy Internet Protocol Version 6 on IPv4 native platforms, like Windows XP and Windows Server 2003; installing and configuring two separate IP stacks often caused problems and confusion. In Longhorn Server, however, IPv4 and IPv6 are built together on a common transport foundation, which means they operate together seamlessly and without any installation or configuration difficulties.

Longhorn Server also includes a GUI component so that IPv6 can be configured from the standard Network Connections interface with which you are likely familiar. IPv6 is no longer a third cousin; it's integrated directly into the product and, in fact, cannot be removed. It is also enabled by default.

3. There are many more controls for configuring and managing wireless connections. Wireless connections were essentially a free-for-all in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, but now with Longhorn Server, administrators can denote lists of allowed and denied wireless networks so that users aren't connecting to random networks that might pop up wherever they happen to be. (This doesn't protect against spoofed SSIDs, however.)