Introduction to Windows Networking - MCTS Guide to Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Configuration - page 342

Figure 8-12 The Advanced Settings dialog box for network connections

Network Providers A network provider is a software component that allows Windows
applications to connect to resources on other computers. Connecting to resources on different
OSs might require different procedures and, therefore, different network providers. There are
network providers for Windows networks, virtual networks (such as VMware), Novell networks,
Linux networks, and so forth, and each one perform actions, such as making and breaking con-
nections, specific to the network type. When a network resource is requested, Windows attempts
to access it in the order in which installed network providers are listed (see Figure 8-13). For
example, a network resource, such as \\server\share, could be hosted on a Windows server, a

Figure 8-13 The Provider Order tab