Customizing a Network Using the Registry It's impossible to provide a complete reference for all of Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 networking in a single chapter (for example | Customizing a Network Using the Registry It s impossible to provide a complete reference for all of Windows NT Windows 2000 Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 networking in a single chapter for example the Resource Kits usually include a comprehensive volume entitled Windows NT Networking . This topic certainly deserves a separate book. However I hope that this chapter helps you to understand how network settings are stored in the registry and how these settings are related to the data displayed by Control Panel applets. This topic is one of the most interesting ones and if you explore it you ll make many discoveries and invent many new ways of customizing network settings. The remaining sections of this chapter will describe various methods of customizing network settings using the registry. Securing DNS Servers against DoS Attacks During the last few years Denial of Service DoS and especially Distributed Denial of Service DDoS attacks have become the most serious threats to corporate networks. The number of such attacks is growing steadily with time and currently no one can feel safe and absolutely secure from encountering this threat. Of course the tips provided here also won t guarantee absolute security against attacks on DNS servers. However they will serve as good add-ons to your security policy. Note Before introducing the registry modifications described below into the configuration of your production servers it is recommended that you test them in your lab environment. All registry settings described in this section are located under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Services Tcpip Parameters registry key Fig. . Notice that if specific parameters are missing from your registry this means that the system considers them to be set to default values. Figure The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Services Tcpip Parameters registry key Brief descriptions of these parameters and their recommended values are provided below .
