14.1. Introducing Network Access Protection (NAP)

NAP is a set of technologies introduced with the release of Windows Server 2008 on the server and in Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Windows Vista on the client. These technologies have been built into the operating systems of these platforms, and you can manage them via Group Policy in a Windows environment.

There exists today a market for products and solutions based on a common industry concept called network access control (NAC). Microsoft's NAP is its entry into this market, so be aware that the terms NAP and NAC mean very different things. One is very specific to Microsoft, and the other is more an industry-wide term.

The NAP technologies allow administrators to create network access policies ...

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