TCP/IP - Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol


Web Sites
Basic L2TP/IPSec Troubleshooting in Windows - If you're configuring your system to use L2TP/IPSec you might find this article useful. It describes the troubleshooting process related to this protocol, and contains many relevant links.
Diamond CS - This site has a lot of information and useful free tools, mainly related to networking and security. Examples of tools are OpenPorts, Autostart Viewer, DelLater, etc.
Domain and Forest Trust Tools and Settings - This site has useful information on the configuration and administration of trusts, including what communication is used in various trust scenarios.
Email/SMTP Test Utility - Test smtp connectivity to your mail server with this great online tool.
EtterCap tutorial - This site is a tutorial of EtterCap - an application for doing arp spoofing, password sniffing, HTTP hijacking, etc.
Foundstone - Foundstone is a division of McAfee that provides security solutions. Their site holds some good white papers as well as free security tools.
How do I use Windows 2000 to generate a CSV containing all the computer names, IP addresses, and MAC addresses in my domain? - Compact little script that enumerates all computernames, IP addresses and MAC addresses in the domain (uses the GetMac utility from Resource Kit Supplement One).
How to configure a firewall for domains and trusts (179442) - This article describes how to configure a firewall for domains and trusts. This article applies to NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003.
How to configure RPC dynamic port allocation to work with firewalls, 154596 - Customers using firewalls may want to control which ports RPC is using so that their firewall router can be configured to forward only these Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) ports.
How to disable APIPA - This article describes how to disable APIPA, either on one network adapter or on the entire computer.
How to Disable Media Sense for TCP/IP in Windows (239924) - Windows contains the "Media Sensing" feature. Whenever Windows detects a "down" state on the media, it removes the bound protocols from that adapter until it is detected as "up" again. There may be situations where you may not want your network adapter to detect this state, and you can configure this by editing the registry.
How to Disable Network Redirector File Caching (Q163401) - By default the network redirector (LanmanRedirector) utilizes the system cache. If you experience network problems the data written to cache might not be able to reach the target file. Some applications (eg. Notes) may not be able to handle this gracefully. One solution is to disable the LanmanRedirector. This will slow down network I/O performance but may solve a critical problem.
How to Enable/Disable Windows 2000 Dynamic DNS Registrations (Q246804) - If you want full control of how your services update DNS, they can be configured individually. The services are the DHCP client, DNS server, NetLogon, RAS Client and DHCP server service.
How to harden the TCP/IP stack against denial of service attacks in Windows Server 2003 - Denial of service (DoS) attacks are network attacks that are aimed at making a computer or a particular service on a computer unavailable to network users. Denial of service attacks can be difficult to defend against. To help prevent denial of service attacks, you can use one of these methods.
How to Reset Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) in Windows XP (299357) - When viewing the list of components for a network interface, you may notice that the Uninstall button is disabled when Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is selected. In Windows XP, the TCP/IP stack is considered a core component of the operating system; therefore, it is not possible to uninstall TCP/IP in Windows XP. In extreme cases, reinstalling the Internet Protocol stack may be the most appropriate solution. With the NetShell utility, you can now reset the TCP/IP stack back to a pristine state, to the same state as when the operating system was installed.
HOW TO: Use IPSec Policy to Secure Terminal Services Communications in Windows 2000 (Q315055) - On this site you get a step by step guide on configuring IPSec for Terminal Services. You can use this as a template for configuring any type of service for IPSec.
Internet Protocol Version 6 - This site contains links to a variety of resources on IPv6 technology and its support in the current versions of Windows.
Network Ports Used by Key Microsoft Server Products - This document discusses the network ports and protocols that are used by server products and their subcomponents in the Microsoft Windows Server System.
Port Requirements for the Microsoft Windows Server System - This article discusses the network ports and protocols that are used by server products and their subcomponents in the Microsoft Windows server system.
Shields Up - Internet vulnerability profiling - A web site that lets you probe any port on your system from the Internet. Also has good descriptions of all ports.
Squish - On this site you can do an extensive check on your external DNS structure. Type in FQDN and record type to see all kinds of statistics.
SynAttackProtect - The SYN flooding attack protection feature of TCP detects symptoms of denial-of-service attacks (also known as SYN flooding), and it responds by reducing the time that the server spends on connection requests that it cannot acknowledge.
Sysinternals - utilities - On Mark Russinovich og Bryce Cogswell's website, Sysinternals, you'll find some of the most useful tool ever written to NT. Examples of programs found here are regmon, filemon, tdimon, handle, etc.
TCP/IP port searcher - On EventID.Net you can also search descriptions of protocols/ports based on portnumber or search word.
Windows Firewall Settings: Server Roles - This site shows details regarding various Microsoft applications and the protocols and ports that need to be added to the Windows Firewall exceptions list.
www.DNSstuff.com - Test all DNS records of your domain with this great on-line testing tool.

White Papers
Adding IPv6 Capability to Windows Sockets Applications - Microsoft white paper about the development of applications (C++) that are both IP v4 and IP v6 compatible. 42 pages.
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for Windows 2000 Server - White paper from Microsoft dealing with Microsoft's implementation of DHCP. 30 pages.
Microsoft Windows 2000 TCP/IP Implementation Details - White paper from Microsoft regarding Microsoft's implementation of TCP/IP. 130 pages.
Microsoft Windows NT Browser - White paper dealing with domain browsing on NT 4.0 based on NetBios names. A must if you're working with NT 4.0 and a more thorough understanding when working with Windows 2000 or later. 49 pages.
Step-by-Step Guide to Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) - Microsoft's official white paper on configuration and use of IPSec. contains simple practises where you test and confirm the functionality of IPsec. 22 pages.
Technical Overview of Windows Server 2003 Networking and Access Technologies - This white paper provides a technical overview of networking and communications enhancements in Windows Server 2003. Concepts in this paper are eg. L2TP/IPSec, mobility, VPN, NAT, NLB, TCP/IP, IPv6, DHCP, DNS, WINS and IAS. 59 pages.
Windows 2000 DNS White Paper - White paper from Microsoft dealing with Microsoft's implementation of DNS. 65 pages.
Windows 2000 Server Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) Overview - Microsoft white paper on the new WINS features on NT 5.0. 13 pages.
Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS): Architecture and Capacity Planning - White paper from Microsoft on WINS. Deals only with NT 4.0 WINS and should therefore be supplemented with "Windows 2000 Server Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) Overview". 67 pages.

Programs
Ethereal network protocol sniffer and analyzer - One of the best freeware sniffers on the web, Ethereal is a free network protocol analyzer for Unix and Windows. It allows you to examine data from a live network or from a capture file on disk. You can interactively browse the captured data, viewing summary and detail information for each packet. Ethereal has several powerful features, including a rich display filter language and the ability to view the reconstructed stream of a TCP session. Requires WinPcap.
EtterCap - Ettercap is a suite for man in the middle attacks on LAN. It features sniffing of live connections, content filtering on the fly and many other interesting tricks. It supports active and passive dissection of many protocols (even ciphered ones) and includes many feature for network and host analysis.
NBLookup.exe command-line tool - NBLookup is a command line diagnostic tool that uses the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) to send NetBIOS name queries to Microsoft Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) servers. NBLookup requires TCP/IP version 4 to run. WINS servers accept name resolution requests on UDP port 137.
NMap - NMap is one of the most used port scanners available. An excellent portscanning tool that lets you test your systems for open ports. Free software running under GNU Public License. Requires WinPcap.
Port Reporter (PortRptr.exe) - Port Reporter logs TCP and UDP port activity on a local Windows system. Port Reporter is a small application that runs as a service on Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. On Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 this service is able to log which ports are used, which process is using the port, if the process is a service, which modules the process has loaded and which user account is running the process.
WinPcap - WinPcap is an architecture for packet capture and network analysis for the Win32 platforms. The packet filter is a device driver that adds to Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP the ability to capture and send raw data from a network card, with the possibility to filter and store in a buffer the captured packets.