Step 1:
Right-click on Network Neighbourhood and select properties. The Network Neighbourhood is also known as My Network Places in the Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition, as it has been displayed in this illustration.

Step 2:
On this screen, you can do a lot of things. You can either set up your dial-up adapter(usually a modem) or your NIC(Network Interface Card). You can also select the protocols that you wish to use on this device. When you click the Identification tab, you can even change the name of your computer and the workgroup. Windows also has several optional components that allow it to act as a file & print server for UNIX/Linux networks and other components to allow it to communicate with Novell NetWare-based networks using the NWLink or IPX/SPX protocol.

Step 3:
When you open the Property window of TCP/IP settings of your NIC, you can find these settings where you can set the IP address, Subnet Mask, DNS Name server, WINS Name server and other settings related to the how the computer should use the TCP/IP protocol. You can also set the TCP/IP address of a Dial-up Adapter if you have a Dial-up Server. Versions of Windows from Windows 95 also have an optional component called the Dial-up Server which can act as a server for Dial-up Networking clients(this is similar to how you connect to the Internet from home, if you have either a regular dial-up modem or a dial-up ISDN connection).

Step 1:
Click on the Start menu button and go to the Settings sub-menu. Click on Network and Dial-up Connections. Why this new interface in Windows 2000 and XP? Firstly, if you have a Dial-up connection, it allows you to specify different TCP/IP settings for the Dial-up Adapter on each connection that you specify. Secondly, if Windows 2000 looked the same as the other versions of Windows, who would want to have it?

Step 2:
As you can see, things in Windows 2000 are a little more organized in Windows 2000 compared to previous operating systems. Though it may be disorienting at first, you'll get used to it. Now, in this window, you'll see the list of Dial-up connections(the one in the illustration is to my ISP) and Network Connections. Right-click on the Local Area Connection icon and select properties to access the TCP/IP properties for this connection. You can also change your TCP/IP settings of your dial-up connection but that will only be used when connection to a Dialup Server, known in Windows 2000 as a Routing and Remote Access Server(RRAS).

Step 3:
The properties dialog box differs from the previous versions of Windows in that it provides a simple clutter-free interface for end-users and clicking on the advanced button gives you access to other settings, such as specifying multiple IP addresses, multiple DNS and WINS Name servers and the option to dynamically update entries in the DNS name server. For now, just select the TCP/IP protocol and click on the properties button to continue.

Step 4:
Here is where you can specify the IP address, subnet mask, router/gateway address and DNS name server addresses. Windows 2000 is less dependent on WINS name servers and therefore that scratches one item off your list if you're dealing with Windows 2000 based systems only. One difference that you'll notice is that changing any of these settings does not usually require restarting Windows(in some rare cases it requires you to do so, but that's another issue).