Universal Plug and Play is a standard used sorta like
PnP to configure hardware, however this one is supposed to configure devices over your basic
TCP/IP compliant
LAN.
This sort of thing gets more important and more consumer devices start sitting on networks (Cams? Video Game Consoles? Microwave Ovens and Refrigerators?) because it allows the devices to configure themselves, and be controlled from machines with better user interfaces.