Core Networking In Microsoft Windows Server 2003

In Microsoft Windows Server 2003, core networking tasks are accomplished by using TCP/IP. TCP/IP consists of a suite of protocols, of which TCP and IP are two. This suite of protocols was originally designed to solve a communications problem among the branches of the United States military. In the 1960s, each of the military branches obtained bids from different vendors to provide computer systems for their branch. The Army chose Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), the Air Force chose International Business Machines (IBM), and the Navy chose Unisys. Soon after, the military branches discovered that they needed their computer systems to communicate with each other to facilitate coordination between the military branches. The Department of Defense (DoD) launched a research project in 1969 to connect the systems of various vendors together to form a network of networks. The DoD developed TCP/IP with IP version 4 (IPv4) to connect this network of networks — the collection of networks now known as the Internet. TCP/IP is still used to connect business networks across the world.
The word internetwork refers to multiple TCP/IP networks connected with routers. The Internet is a worldwide public IP internetwork. An intranet is a private IP internetwork.

The core networking components protocol, TCP/IP, which is installed by default on computers that run Windows Server 2003 is an industry-standard suite of protocols designed for large internetworks spanning wide area network (WAN) links. TCP/IP in Windows Server 2003 was designed to make it easy to integrate Microsoft systems into large-scale corporate, government and public networks, and to provide the ability to operate over those networks in a more secure manner. There are two versions of TCP/IP available for use with Windows Server 2003:
TCP/IP version 4 (with IPv4) and
TCP/IP version 6 (with IPv6).

Computers that run Windows operating systems use TCP/IP to communicate with other computers in corporate intranets, and across the Internet. As such, TCP/IP is an essential component of any Windows network configuration. Windows Server 2003 is the first release of the Windows operating system that includes IPv6. Ideally, IPv6 is used in a pure environment, meaning an environment where IPv6 is the exclusive Internet protocol used between computers. Currently, however, pure IPv6 environments are attainable only when you use computers running Windows operating systems that support IPv6 and routers that support IPv6 routing. As IPv6 replace IPv4, pure IPv6 environments will eventually replace IPv4. Until that occurs, the transition technologies described in this technical reference can be used to facilitate coexistence and provide a migration path from IPv4 to IPv6.