Microsoft Vista Home Networking Setup and Options
The most daunting part of upgrading to Windows Vista may be trying to figure out where in the layers of menus the networking and file-sharing options are hidden.
Tips for Securing Your Home Router
Seemingly minor and easily overlooked settings can still have profound security implications. Here are some steps you can take to make sure your wired or wireless home router — and by extension, your network — is as secure as possible.
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Microsoft Windows Home Server
If you have a home network, you'll welcome the easy file sharing, remote access and the image-based backup features of Windows Home Server.
Iomega StorCenter Network Hard Drive
Iomega's fourth generation StorCenter Network Hard Drive brings many of the features found in higher-end storage devices down to an attractive price.
MikroTik's The Dude
This free tool delivers many of the same capabilities that you'd find in pricey network monitoring tools. As long as you don't mind tinkering, The Dude is a decent network utility that should be worth the download.
PPTP (Point to Point Tunneling Protocol) is Microsoft's current
protocol for establishing Virtual Private Networks (VPN) over the
Internet. A VPN provides a secure, encrypted connection between two
computers over the public Internet.
Since PPTP is a special protocol, NAT based routers need to handle it
differently than other protocols. Not every Router has the
capability to handle PPTP and those that do may only allow PPTP
Clients on your LAN to connect to a remote PPTP server, and not allow you
to host a PPTP server on your LAN. So check your Router's
documentation.
Host a PPTP Server
If you want to host a PPTP server on your LAN, you will probably need
to forward or map TCP and UDP port 1723 through your router's
firewall.
Establishing a VPN Client connection
There are two important steps to creating a VPN connection in
Windows95/98/NT4:
Adding the VPN Adapter Device in the Network control panel
Creating a VPN Connection profile in DialUpNetworking
Yes, I know that the second step isn't intuitive to those of you who
are using cable modem or 'DSL connections, but that's the way Microsoft
wants it done.
If you're running Win95, you should seriously consider upgrading to
Win98 or at least download and install the DUN1.3 update. Click
here to download the update.
Once you get the VPN Device installed, you'll need to create a DUN
profile for the VPN connection. Do this the same as you would for a
normal DUN profile, but select the "Microsoft VPN Adapter" as
the device used for the profile.
You then need to configure and test the profile. That's described
nicely in this article
from ZyXEL. Although the article refers to PPTP setup for the
ZyXEL product, you should be able to figure out what you need to do for
your router.
Learn More
If you're interested in learning more about PPTP, check the
articles on this page.