Important:
This is retired content. This content is outdated and is no longer being maintained. It is provided as a courtesy for individuals who are still using these technologies. This content may contain URLs that were valid when originally published, but now link to sites or pages that no longer exist.
A version of this page is also available for
4/8/2010

Each device that participates in TCP/IP networking activities must have a unique IP address. Network applications that use TCP/IP identify other network hosts using IP addresses. The IP address provides the directions to the exact location of a host device on a network. If IP determines that a destination address is an address on the local network, IP transmits the packet directly to the network host. If IP determines that the destination IP address is not on the local network, IP looks for a route to a remote host. An address on the local network is a local address and an address not on the local network is a remote address. If a route is found, IP sends the packet using that route. If a route is not found, the packet is sent to the default gateway for the source host. A gateway is a device that connects networks using different communication protocols.

Note:
Windows Embedded CE supports multiple default gateways, but only one gateway is active at any point in time.

Each IP address includes a network identifier and a host identifier. The network identifier identifies systems located on the same physical network. All systems on the same physical network must have the same network identifier. The host identifier identifies a workstation, server, router, or other TCP/IP host within a network. The address for each host must be unique to the network identifier.

Assigning an IPv6 Address to a Device

The IPv6 128-bit address is divided along 16-bit boundaries. Each 16-bit block is then converted to a 4-digit hexadecimal number, separated by colons. The resulting representation is called colon-hexadecimal. This is in contrast to the 32-bit IPv4 address represented in dotted-decimal format, divided along 8-bit boundaries, and then converted to its decimal equivalent, separated by periods. For more information, see IPv6 Addresses.

You do not need to configure IPv6 addresses manually. Unlike in IPv4, DHCP is not used in IPv6 to configure an IP address and subnet mask automatically. Instead, the link-local scope of an IPv6 addresses is always configured automatically. Addresses with other scopes, such as global, are configured by router advertisements. For more information about autoconfiguration, see IPv6 Address Autoconfiguration.

In Windows CE .NET 4.1 and later, the DNS name resolution may yield both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. Therefore, algorithms are used to determine source and destination addresses of appropriate scope and configuration status. For information about IPv6 default address selection, see Default Address Selection for IPv6.

Assigning a Device Name

An OEM can configure the name of a particular device by using the sethostnamefunction or by including the following lines of code in the Platform.reg file.

Copy Code 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Ident]
	"OrigName"="WinCE"
	"Name"="MyUniqueName"

When the device boots, the system copies the original name to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Ident\OrigNameregistry key. If another device wants to connect to your device by using the value of the Name, the other device can do so.

Note:
The names of the registry entries for configuring the name of a device may change in future releases.

For information about the sethostname function, see sethostname.

See Also