Wireless Zero Configuration (WZC)
23 July 2000 by Snakefoot | Comment » | Trackback OffDescription:
Provides automatic configuration for the 802.11 adapters.The IEEE 802.11 standard specifies optional security improvements for wireless local area networking:
- Authentication using 802.1x to avoid being vulnerable to attacks such as offline traffic analysis, bit flipping, and malicious packet injection
- Key Management with rekeying of unicast encryption keys
- Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) uses Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) for encryption
- 802.1x authentication is not optional
- Key Management provides rekeying of both unicast and global encryption keys and is not optional
- Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) replaces WEP with a stronger encryption algorithm and is not optional
Note the Wireless Zero Configuration (WZC) service uses NDIS User Mode I/O (NDISUIO) NDIS protocol driver to query and monitor network adapters (Ethernet, WLAN etc.). Therefore some software firewall will report activity from the NDISUIO.SYS when using the WZC service, but it is perfectly harmless.
More Info MS KB Q314897
More Info MS KB Q318710
More Info MS KB Q328601
More Info MS KB Q815485 Q826942 (WPA for WinXP SP1)
More Info MS KB Q831749
More Info MS KB Q870702
More Info MS KB Q894568
More Info MS KB Q917021 (WPA2 for WinXP SP2)
More Info WSC WPA Assistant for Win2k (Freeware with security "reminders")
Recommended State:
- Disabled, if not using wireless network with a 802.11 network device.
- Automatic, if using wireless netwok AND manufacture of the netcard haven't provided software of their own.
Default State:
- Win2k SP4+: Manual.
- WinXP: Automatic.
- Win2k3 Std./Enterprise/Datacenter: Automatic.
- Win2k3 Web: Manual.
Process Name:
- svchost.exe -k netsvcs (WZCSVC)
Supports:
- None
Depends:
- Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
- Protected Storage (Win2k SP4+ Only)
- Windows Management Instrumentation Driver Extensions (Win2k SP4+ Only)
Updated: 3 October 2010