1. You can't access Network Connections by right-clicking the Network icon (previously My Network Places) on the desktop and choosing Properties. Maybe you didn't use a Network icon on the desktop. But if you did, that was the quickest way to get to the network stack.

2. The new network stack adds IPv6 and two network layers aimed at supporting Vista's networking "discovery" features. When it comes to networking, more layers are usually not better. Simpler is usually better. The optional IPv6 networking offered by Microsoft for Windows XP (which was at one point called the "Advanced Networking Pack") was truly an adventure, and not in a good way. This version of IPv6 does not appear to be following in those footsteps. The bad news is that a lot of the promised improvements to Windows networking didn't suddenly materialize with IPv6 support either.

14. Windows peer networking is still balky.

In the main Network folder, where you expect to find shared objects or workstations that offer shared items, the "View Workgroup Computers" option is missing. Since Vista no longer attempts to show actual shared drives, folders, printers and so on, but makes you click through the top level of each connected computer on the network, it would seem that "View Workgroup Computers" option is no longer needed. In fact, this change to begin with visible computers on the network (instead of listing all shared resources Windows has detected in the past) is good, and will cut way down on the number of times you try open a network-shared device and have to wait through a timeout because that computer isn't currently turned on or visible to the network.