Summary

Windows 2000 and Active Directory provide advanced networking services. Windows 2000 is a powerful operating system and has been designed to use industry standards as the foundation for these services. Whether implemented in a pure-Windows 2000 environment in a LAN, or a mixed environment (which is typically the case with most large, distributed enterprises), Active Directory and Windows 2000 networking services offer improved management, networking, integration, scalability, and reliability.

Although this chapter focuses on Windows 2000 DHCP Services, WINS services, and QoS, it is important to point out that Windows 2000 offers a number of additional communication and networking services designed to address your specific network requirements. These include native support for Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), IP Telephony and TAPI 3.0, VPNs, and much more. Chapter 16, "Developing a Remote Access Solution," focuses on remote access using Windows 2000 and Active Directory; VPNs are also covered in this chapter.