Additional New Features

   

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The following sections describe a variety of other new networking features in Windows Server 2003:

• Changes to the Winsock API

• Windows Sockets Direct for System Area Networks

• Removal of Legacy Networking protocols

• Removal of Obsolete RPC Protocols

• Command-Line Tools

• Strong Authentication for Services for Macintosh

Changes to the Winsock API

The following changes to the Windows Sockets API have been made to the Windows Server 2003 family:

• Removal of support for AF_NETBIOS (64-bit only).

  AF_NETBIOS is not supported on 64-bit versions of the Enterprise Edition and Datacenter Edition. Applications should use TCP or UDP as alternatives. Functionality is preserved for 32-bit third-party applications.

• ConnectEx/TransmitPackets and TCP/IP.

  The following two functions are Microsoft-specific extensions to the Windows Sockets 2 specification:

  • The Windows Sockets ConnectEx function establishes a connection to another socket application and optionally sends the block of data after the connection is established.

  • The Windows Sockets TransmitPackets function transmits in-memory data or file data over a connected socket (either datagram or stream). The operating system's cache manager is used to retrieve file data and locks memory for the minimum time required to transmit it. This provides high performance and efficiency for file and memory data transfer over sockets.

Windows Sockets Direct for System Area Networks

The Windows Server 2003 family contains substantial performance improvements to Windows Sockets Direct (WSD) for storage area networks (SANs). WSD allows Windows Sockets applications written for SOCK_STREAM to obtain the performance benefits of SANs without having to make application modifications. The fundamental component of this technology is the WinSock switch that emulates TCP/IP semantics over native SAN service providers. For the Windows 2000 Server family, WSD support was available only for Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server. WSD support is included for all members of the Windows Server 2003 family. For more information about the Windows Sockets API, see the Microsoft Platform SDK.

Removal of Legacy Networking Protocols

The following legacy networking protocols have been removed:

• Data Link Control (DLC)

• NetBIOS Extended User Interface (NetBEUI)

The following legacy networking protocols have been removed from the 64-bit versions of the operating system:

• Internetwork Packet Exchange/Sequenced Packet Exchange (IPX/SPX) and IPX-dependent services

• Infrared Data Association (IrDA)

• Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)

Removal of Obsolete RPC Protocols

The following legacy RPC protocols have been superseded by TCP:

• Remote Procedure Call (RPC) over NetBEUI

• RPC over NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT).

• RPC over NetBIOS over IPX (NBIPX)

• RPC over SPX (64-bit only)

• RPC over AppleTalk (64-bit only)

Legacy protocols superseded by UDP include the following:

• RPC over IPX

• RPC over Message Queuing (MSMQ)

Command-Line Tools

New command-line tools or utilities are provided to improve management and administration of computers. A new and updated command-line help file (A “Z) is included as well to document the Cmd.exe shell and every tool. Command-line tools include the following:

• Bootcfg.exe

  Used to view or set the properties (such as debug on/off) of the boot.ini file on a local or remote server (not available in 64-bit versions)

• DriverQuery.exe

  Used to view the currently loaded device drivers and their memory usage

• Dsadd.exe

  Used to create an object instance of a specified type in Active Directory

• Dsget.exe

  Used to get or view selected properties of an existing object in Active Directory when the location of the object to be viewed is specifically known

• Dsmod.exe

  Used to modify selected attributes of an existing object in Active Directory

• Dsmove.exe

  Used to move an object from its current location to a new parent location within the same naming context or to rename an object in Active Directory

• Dsquery.exe

  Used to find objects in Active Directory that match specified search criteria

• Dsrm.exe

  Used to remove an object or the complete subtree under an object in Active Directory

• Eventcreate.exe

  Used to write a user-defined event to any of the event logs

• Eventquery.vbs

  Used to specify the type of events to extract from the event log. The selected events can be displayed on the screen or saved to a file

• Eventtriggers.exe

  Used to launch a process based on the occurrence of an event written to the event log

• Gpresult.exe

  Used to get the Resultant Set of Policy (RSoP) and the list of policies that are applied to a computer

• IIS scripts

  Many new scripts (IISWeb.vbs, IISVdir.vbs, and so on) that provide command-line tools to configure and manage a server running IIS and Active Server Pages (ASP) applications

• Netsh.exe

  Extensive network configuration tool; now adds the basic network diagnostic features provided by the older NetDiag.exe tool

• Openfiles.exe

  Used to view the list of connected users and files in use per share on a computer

• Pagefileconfig.vbs

  Used to get the current paging file size or set a new paging file size

• Print scripts

  Many new scripts (prncnfg.vbs, prnjobs.vbs, and so on) used to manage printer services, drivers, and queues

• Reg.exe

  Used to view, set, and edit registry keys

• SC.exe

  Used to start, stop, and manage Win32 services

• Schtasks.exe

  Used to get, set, or edit a scheduled task using the existing Win32 scheduling service

• Systeminfo.exe

  Used to view basic properties of a machine (such as CPU and memory)

• Taskkill.exe

  Used to kill or stop a running process

• Tasklist.exe

  Used to view or identify all running processes with PIDs

• Tsecimp.exe

  Used to import Telephony Application Programming Interface (TAPI) user account properties and access rights

An IT administrator can use command-line tools to automate high-volume or common server administration tasks via Visual Basic scripting or command-line batch files. This eliminates one-off operations that are often imposed by the GUI management tools and can reduce IT administration costs.

Strong Authentication for Services for Macintosh

For computers running Services for Macintosh (SFM) and using the Microsoft user authentication module (MSUAM), a new Require Strong Authentication (NTLMv2) check box is present and enabled by default in the MSUAM interface. Selecting this option allows users to authenticate only to a server that implements NTLMv2. This excludes Windows NT 4.0 and older servers that cannot authenticate using NTLMv2. The user can clear the Require Strong Authentication (NTLMv2) check box to allow authentication to these older servers.

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