Internet Connectivity Improvements | Introducing Microsoft Windows Server(TM) 2003

The following sections describe enhancements to Internet connectivity that have been made in the Windows Server 2003 family:

Internet Connection Firewall
Network Connection Enhancements

Internet Connection Firewall

When a computer is connected to the Internet or to another pathway to the outside world, it faces threats of unauthorized attempts to access it and its data. Whether the computer connecting to the external network is a stand-alone computer or is acting as a gateway for a network behind the computer (for example, when the Internet Connection Sharing feature is used), a firewall can guard your home network against the threat of unsafe network traffic while allowing appropriate network traffic to pass.

The Windows Server 2003 family includes the Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) for protecting your computers and home networks that are connected in such a manner. ICF is enabled automatically for dial-up and broadband connections when the New Connection Wizard is run, setting up your firewall with default settings that will work for most networks. The firewall can also be enabled or disabled manually for a connection through the Network Connections folder.

ICF monitors communications that were initiated from inside the firewall to determine what traffic should be allowed from the external network. Traffic initiating from the external network is not allowed through the firewall by default. When you host services or programs (such as a Web server) behind the firewall, ICF settings can be changed to suit your needs. ICF can be used to protect a remote access connection when dialing directly into an Internet service provider (ISP) or protect a LAN connection that's connected via a digital subscriber line (DSL) or cable modem.

This feature is provided only with the 32-bit versions of Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, and Web Edition.

Network Connection Enhancements

The following enhancements to network connections have been made in the Windows Server 2003 family:

Updated Group Policy for network and dial-up connections.

This feature provides the ability to apply Group Policy to specify the components of networking functionality for specific users with computers running the Windows XP Professional or a member of the Windows Server 2003 family. This feature allows the following scenarios:
- An IT administrator can make a user a member of the Network Configuration Operators Group, whose members have access to the TCP/IP properties for LAN connections and can configure their own IP addresses.
- If a user account is a member of the local Administrators group on a computer, the user can enable and configure ICS, ICF, Network Bridge, and properties of network connections. Enabling or reconfiguring these features might impair network connectivity. With this feature, an IT administrator can enable policies that block even a local administrator from configuring these features.
Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet client for broadband Internet connections.

The Windows Server 2003 family includes the ability to create connections using Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE). Using PPPoE and a broadband Internet connection such as DSL or cable modem, users can gain individual authenticated access to high-speed data networks. In previous versions of Windows, users had to install separate software that was supplied by the ISP. Now this support is built into the operating system. PPPoE-client support allows the following scenarios:
- A home user has a broadband connection that requires a PPPoE login to connect to the Internet. Using the built-in PPPoE client and the New Connection Wizard, a user can now create a fully integrated Internet connection.
- An IT administrator can use this feature to make access to the internal network more secure by using PPPoE to authenticate any network access from public areas in their offices, such as conference rooms and lobbies .
  
  Having this ability built into the Windows Server 2003 family allows you to leverage other features such as ICS (to share your broadband connection with other computers) and ICF (to protect the PPPoE connection from Internet attacks). The PPPoE connection can also be selected from Internet Explorer and other Windows-based components and applications.

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