Differences between PPTP in Windows Desktop and Windows Embedded Compact (Compact 2013)
3/26/2014
In the Windows Embedded Compact networking architecture, the PPTP WAN miniport communicates directly with TCP/IP. After receiving a packet that is addressed to the private network from TCP/IP, PPP performs the framing and then forwards the packet to the PPTP WAN miniport. The PPTP WAN miniport encapsulates the information contained in the packet and then reroutes the packet back to TCP/IP. IP then attaches another header that contains the address of the PPTP server to the packet and passes the packet on to the appropriate network interface, which could be a LAN or modem connection to the PPTP server. After receiving the packet over the network, the PPTP server strips the IP header off the packet and routes the packet to the private network.
The following differences exist between the Windows Embedded Compact and Windows XP PPTP implementations:
- The Windows Embedded Compact implementation of PPTP provides a subset of the functionality provided in the Windows XP implementation of PPTP.
- By default, Windows Embedded Compact only supports a single VPN connection. The OEM can set up the PPTP support of a Windows Embedded Compact-based device so that more than one connection is possible.
- Windows Embedded Compact does not support NetBEUI and IPX.
- The networking user interface (UI) supported in Windows Embedded Compact differs from the network UI implemented in Windows XP. Windows Embedded Compact provides a relatively simple UI that offers only a few options that can be set by the user. Underneath the UI, Windows Embedded Compact supports a number of settings that developers can configure through the registry.