Windows XP and 2000 Tips & Tricks UPDATE, July 15, 2002

Windows XP and 2000 Tips & Tricks UPDATE—brought to you by the Windows & .NET Magazine Network and the Windows 2000 FAQ site
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July 15, 2002—In this issue:

1. COMMENTARY

2. FAQS

3. ANNOUNCEMENTS

4. CONTACT US

1. COMMENTARY
(contributed by John Savill, FAQ Editor, [email protected])

This week, I explain Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), tell you how to stop Windows Messenger from sending Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP) messages, and describe Software Update Services (SUS). I also tell you how to force a machine-specific Group Policy, where to find Microsoft NetMeeting in Windows XP, and how to rip MP3 files at high-quality data rates in Windows Media Player (WMP) 8.

My new book, "The Windows XP/2000 Answer Book: A Complete Resource from the Desktop to the Enterprise" (Addison-Wesley), is now available for preorder on Amazon.com at the URL below. The book will be available at the end of September.
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2. FAQS

A. UPnP is a peer-to-peer network architecture for connecting intelligent appliances, wireless devices, and PCs that are in close proximity. The architecture is based on TCP/IP and Web technologies that provide easy-to-use, flexible, standards-based connectivity to ad hoc or unmanaged home, small-business, public-space, and Internet-based networks.

UPnP does more than just extend the Plug and Play (PnP) peripheral model. According to Microsoft's Web site, UPnP supports zero configuration, "invisible" networking, and automatic discovery for a breadth of device categories from a wide range of vendors. Through this design, a UPnP device can dynamically join a network, obtain an IP address, convey device capabilities, and learn about the presence and capabilities of other UPnP devices.

UPnP leverages Internet components, including IP, TCP, UDP, HTTP, and XML. For example, UPnP establishes contracts based on wire protocols that are declarative, expressed in XML, and communicated through HTTP. UPnP is well suited for IP internetworking because it was explicitly designed to span different physical media, enable real-world multiple-vendor interoperation, and achieve synergy between the Internet and many home and office intranets. Further, UPnP can use a technique known as bridging to accommodate media that runs non-IP protocols.

Because UPnP uses common protocols, instead of device drivers, UPnP networks can run on any media, including phone lines, power lines, Ethernet, radio frequency (RF), and FireWire. You can use any programming language on any OS to address UPnP devices. Windows XP and later OSs use two new services—the Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP) discovery service and the UPnP device hosting service—to natively support UPnP.

For more information about UPnP, visit the first URL below. For XP-specific information, visit the second URL below.
http://www.upnp.org
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/
pro/techinfo/planning/upnp/default.asp

A. Windows XP and later OSs include the following services to support Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) devices:

Disabling these services doesn't guarantee that SSDP discovery messages will stop, and you might still see traffic on UDP port 1900. This problem can occur if Windows Messenger uses SSDP to identify upstream Internet gateway devices because Windows Messenger formats and sends its own SSDP traffic instead of using the built-in UPnP services. To stop this SSDP discovery traffic, perform the following steps:

A. The current Windows Update site is ideal for home users because it automatically connects you to Microsoft's Web site, determines what updates you need, and downloads and installs the updates. For corporate users, however, this approach can be a nightmare for administrators, who would be unable to control what updates a user is applying and how much bandwidth the user is taking advantage of to download the updates.

Although you as the administrator can disable Windows Update, go to the Windows Update Web site, create a "basket" of updates, save the updates to a local machine, and distribute the updates to many other machines, you lose the ability to automatically install the updates, which is one of the main benefits of Windows Update. Fortunately, Microsoft has created SUS for corporate users.

SUS replaces the Windows Update Corporate Edition program and lets an administrator use a modified Windows Update interface to download fixes, test the fixes, and deploy them to a group of computers. The clients can then use a modified Windows Update client to automatically install the fixes. Microsoft has created a Macromedia Flash demo that explains the concept at the following URL:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/docs/SUSDemo.swf

To use SUS, you need to download the server software and the client software (unless you use Windows XP Service Pack 1—SP1—or later or Win2K SP3 or later, which include SUS). You can download the software, along with white papers about deployment and a system overview, from the URL below. The deployment white paper is comprehensive and describes an advanced configuration—I urge you to read it.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/windowsupdate/sus

If you choose to use SUS, consider these caveats:

A. Typically, the settings that the OS applies when a user logs on are based on the user's account container (e.g., a domain, a site, an organizational unit—OU), regardless of which container the user's machine belongs to. In some instances, you might want to forgo using this default behavior and instead associate a user's settings with the location of the user's computer within Active Directory (AD). For example, you might want to set a strict, defined set of policies for a publicly accessible computer, regardless of who logs on to that computer.

To establish machine-specific settings, use Group Policy to set the computer's container to "loopback" mode—so that the computer's client settings take precedence—by performing the following steps:

A. NetMeeting is a standard XP component that's hidden until initial configuration. NetMeeting lets you participate in virtual meetings, work in shared applications, share data over the Internet or an intranet, and share live video with others in faraway places.

To enable NetMeeting, perform the following steps:

To begin a NetMeeting session, start NetMeeting (e.g., run conf.exe again to start the application or select the appropriate shortcut from the Start menu or desktop), click the Phone button, and enter the IP address of the machine you want to communicate with.

A. WMP 8 includes a built-in, high-quality Windows Media Audio (WMA) ripper but includes only a low-quality MP3 ripper that stores audio at 56Kbps. To enable high-quality MP3 ripping, perform the following steps (you don't need to perform these steps if you've purchased third-party MP3 ripping software):

A complete list of available data-quality speeds is

3. ANNOUNCEMENTS
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4. CONTACT US
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