At the center of all this is the Network and Sharing Center. It put the most important networking features into an integrated, simple-to-configure interface. Setting up file sharing, for example, was painful to do properly in Windows XP but is now a matter of a few mouse-clicks. And everything else is in easy reach as well, including connecting to a network, setting up a new network, managing your network connections, and diagnosing and repairing network problems.

One of Windows Vista's best new networking tools is the Network Map. Click "View Full Map" from the Network and Sharing Center, and a live map is drawn of all the devices and PCs on your network. Hover over a device or click on it, and you'll get more details about that device. Hover over a gateway, for example, and you'll see its IP address and MAC address. Click a PC, and you'll see the shared network files and folders on it.

However, if you have a network with PCs that have earlier versions of Windows on it (and who among us doesn't?), you're going to run into a few bumps. Windows Vista uses the new Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) protocol, which speeds up discovering and displaying network devices, as well as allowing Windows Vista to grab information about them.

Earlier versions of Windows don't include LLTD, and so you'll notice networking support for them tends to be flaky. Sometimes they'll show up on the Network Map, sometimes they won't, and they appear and disappear at random times. Microsoft said that it will release an LLTD add-on for Windows XP PCs when Windows Vista ships, so that might solve the problem.

Wireless networking