Hello everybody! My name is Alvin Tan (most people call me Al) and I'm a developer in the Windows Networking & Devices division. To be more specific, I'm in the Network Diagnostics group. I've only been here for 4 months, so please be gentle with the questions and flames! I currently own the Windows XP (and soon, Longhorn) network bridge driver and was the author of the original Windows XP and 2003 IPv6 firewall.

TRIVIA: Do you know what the network bridge does?

One of the reasons why I'm blogging here is because it seems to me that there aren't many people blogging from this particular division of Microsoft, but I'm hoping that trend will change in time. Also, I'd like to get some kind of dialog going with the network-savvy readers out there.

I think in general, most people will agree that networking in Windows has been hit and miss at times. When it works, it works pretty well. However, when things go wrong, sometimes you have absolutely no idea of what is going on. I have several friends who occasionally curse me out because their file sharing setup would suddenly stop working after a few days of plugging new Windows XP workstations into their workgroup of Windows 2000 workstations.

Believe it or not, the big guys in the networking division realize that the Windows Networking experience needs to be revamped. Some of our upcoming work include significantly informative UI-based network diagnostics tools. In addition to that, we're also working on ways to auto-diagnose and repair network problems. All of these work items are currently slated for Longhorn. I'll definitely get into further detail in a later post.

So, if you are still reading this, let me know what you'd like to see coming from the networking division. Or better yet, what advanced networking features would you like to see for Longhorn? I'll do my best to accomodate or respond to reasonable request(s). For the most part, I think most of us are currently working on cranking out new features for Longhorn. Until next time, have a bloggy good day!

Oh, and I'm leaving you guys with this awesome link: http://www.sorethumbz.com/swg/request.php?1