A family of technologies from Microsoft for configuring and managing wired and wireless networks and discovering and employing services on the networks.
Windows Connect Now (WCN)
WCN is Microsoft's counterpart to Wi-Fi Protected Setup, which enables secure configuration settings to be transferred to new devices. See
Windows Connect Now.
Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD)
Starting with Vista, Microsoft's LLTD protocol is used to generate a graphical map of the network. In order for XP computers to show up, an "LLTD responder" must be installed in each XP machine.
Plug and Play Extensions (PnP-X)
Starting with Vista, PnP-X enables the discovery of devices on the network in order to install their drivers. For example, after connecting to the network, users can discover a printer, install its driver and print from their laptops.
Device Profile for Web Services (DPWS)
DPWS is a subset of Web services protocols for describing, discovering, subscribing to and sending secure messages to Web services. See
Web services and
Web services protocols.