What USRobotics Products Support UPnP?

The USR8000A-02 and the USR8003 Broadband Routers support UPnP.

What software supports UPnP?

UPnP is supported in Windows Me and Windows XP only. Microsoft’s Remote Assistance, Remote Desktop, and MSN Messenger Version 5.0 are the only supported software titles.

What is UPnP?

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a network feature utilizing the Internet and Web protocols to promote the communicative exchange of information between networking devices. In other words, with UPnP, when a user plugs a device into a network (such as a printer), the device will self-configure by acquiring a TCP/IP address, and use a discovery protocol based on the Internet’s Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to relay its presence and availability to all other networking devices connected to the network.

What are the benefits of UPnP?

Simplicity, interoperability, and choices. Networking products that include Universal Plug and Play technology will "just plain work" when physically connected to the network. UPnP can work with essentially any networking media technology, wired or wireless.

There is little doubt that the primary objective of UPnP is to provide home networks, proximity networks, and networks in small buildings the ability to enable data communication between any two devices through the command of any control device on the network. This is significant since in essence, the use of UPnP affords the end user the virtual ability to add more networking bandwidth without adding the extra work of setting it up in the first place. Taking advantage of this technology for data communication is only limited by the user's imagination. With UPnP, and a few extra peripherals, a user can regulate a thermostat, synchronize household clocks, even monitor the security activity of a house or business through the use of cameras and a UPnP-enabled TV.

In addition, UPnP is independent of any particular operating system, programming language, or physical medium. This is equally significant since a device can also leave a network smoothly, automatically, and efficiently without leaving any residual or unwanted state behind. Finally, UPnP is a self-sufficient learning tool that benefits its users by learning from the Internet’s success, leveraging all of its more significant components to work together using the same language. What this means is that UPnP, in use with the combined efforts of a multi-vendor collaboration for establishing standard Device Control Protocols (DCPs), has established contracts between all wire protocols such as IP, TCP, UDP, HTTP, and XML. As such, UPnP expresses declarative language in XML and communicates this language via HTTP.

How do I install Universal Plug and Play?

1. Open Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel.
2. Click Add/Remove Windows Components.
3. In the Components list, select the Networking Services check box, and click Details.
4. Make sure the Universal Plug and Play check box is selected.

Note: To open Add or Remove Programs, click Start, Control Panel, and click Add or Remove Programs.