Microsoft on Tuesday used a public online chat to provide some detailed technical insight into the networking features it plans to fold into its next-generation Longhorn operating system, which is scheduled for initial release in 2006.

Microsoft today provided some detailed technical insight into the networking features it plans to fold into its next-generation Longhorn operating system, which is scheduled for initial release in 2006. In a public, online chat, Jawad Khaki, vice president of Microsoft's networking and devices division, emphasized that Longhorn is being designed with a heavy dose of support for the latest wireless technologies, as well as for the new IPv6 Internet protocol. "Wireless will have the latest 802.11i security support," Khaki wrote in the chat. "Longhorn will [also] offer a new, integrated IPv4/IPv6 stack optimized for low-speed wireless and multi-gigabit networks. The new stack will have extensibility to enable easy integration with third-party products, such as firewalls, parental controls and virus products. We will also have enhancements to provide easy diagnostics to help users and network managers to easily troubleshoot problems."