Network discovery enhances the security of WINDOWS7 clients

When you used the XP operating system, users complained about why they couldn't find an XP client in their network neighborhood. If you have a printer attached to an XP operating system and you have set up a share. Then you want to connect to a shared printer on another computer, but you can't find the client computer with the XP operating system. Even if you shut down the firewall, it still has no effect in the same workgroup. Experts from various fields have also devoted a lot of solutions to this problem. But these solutions can eventually solve the problem, but the configuration is more cumbersome. And because of the different XP configuration environment, a solution is not able to solve the problem in all configurations.

But this has been greatly improved in the upcoming WINDOWS7 client. A "Network discovery" management platform is provided in this Windows7 operating system. This platform allows you to control whether this Windows7 client can be found on the network by other clients. As shown in the following illustration, is a screenshot of the Network Discovery Management platform. It is an option under the WINDOWS7 network configuration file.

Network Discovery Features

First, the basic configuration of Network discovery.

Where does the network find itself in the Windows7 operating system? To put it simply, Network Discovery has two main functions. One is to decide whether Windows7 client computers can find other hosts or network devices on the network, and decide whether other hosts on the network can find your client computer. Simply put, the web discovery is like a vane, if you open it, then you can find someone else who can know you. But if you turn off this vane, even if you connect to the network, other clients can not find you; Also you can't see each other in the Internet neighborhood.

Network Discovery has three basic configuration options to enable Network discovery, turn off network Discovery, and customize the configuration. Although the above illustration shows only a single configuration option, a third configuration option can be derived when used in conjunction with a firewall.

1, enable network discovery. If you choose this option, the WINDOWS7 client can see other hosts or network devices on the network, and other clients can see the WINDOWS7 client computer. For this reason, if you set up a shared folder on this computer or share a network device, it will be very convenient. Because you can see this client computer directly from your network Neighborhood, you don't need to go through any other settings. However, it is possible that all clients can see this client and the folders or printers shared above, which will have a certain impact on their security. So while network discovery is enabled, it is best to use some security measures to secure these shared files. If you set the shared folder to read-only or set a shared password, and so on.

2, shut down the network discovery. This setting option is just the opposite of enabling network discovery. If you set up to turn off network discovery, the operating system will allow other clients to not see the client on the network, even in the same workgroup. The client is then not able to see other clients and network devices on the network. This can largely guarantee its safety. In general, if you use the WINDOWS7 operating system as a stand-alone, you can set to "Turn off network discovery." So as to ensure their own security.

3, custom configuration. The top two options are actually the two extremes of network discovery. Each option corresponds to a series of default configurations. But there are times when we may want to take the middle road. If you want a deployment to be found by a WINDOWS7 client, the host on the network cannot be seen by other clients. Or that only certain computers can find them in their online neighborhoods and use their shared resources. Simply put, the "Enable Network Discovery" option is only valid for a specific client. It is not possible to implement this feature under the previous XP operating system. And in the WINDOWS7 can be easily implemented. In simple terms, custom settings are the ones that make certain networks discover that the strategy is valid, but not all of them, but partially valid. If you want to make customizations, the system administrator can first set the network discovery to "Enable Network discovery." And then through the firewall to change some of the network Discovery Configuration strategy, so that its effectiveness. So that the user or system administrator can according to their own needs, to carry out flexible configuration. To meet security considerations, you can improve the convenience of shared folders and shared devices.