OID_GEN_PHYSICAL_MEDIUM (NDIS 5.1)
Note NDIS 5. x has been deprecated and is superseded by NDIS 6. x. For new NDIS driver development, see Network Drivers Starting with Windows Vista. For information about porting NDIS 5. x drivers to NDIS 6. x, see Porting NDIS 5.x Drivers to NDIS 6.0.
The OID_GEN_PHYSICAL_MEDIUM OID specifies the types of physical media that the NIC supports. This OID is essentially an extension of OID_GEN_MEDIA_SUPPORTED. A miniport driver should support OID_GEN_PHYSICAL_MEDIUM only if its NIC uses one of the media types listed subsequently.
NICs use OID_GEN_PHYSICAL_MEDIUM to differentiate their physical media from media that they declared to support in the OID_GEN_MEDIA_SUPPORTED query. These media types are listed as a proper subset of the following system-defined values from the NDIS_PHYSICAL_MEDIUM enumeration:
NdisPhysicalMediumWirelessLan
Packets are transferred over a wireless LAN network through a miniport driver that conforms to the 802.11 interface. For more information about this interface, see. 802.11 Wireless LAN Miniport Drivers
NdisPhysicalMediumCableModem
Packets are transferred over a DOCSIS-based cable network.
NdisPhysicalMediumPhoneLine
Packets are transferred over standard phone lines.
Includes, for example, HomePNA media.
NdisPhysicalMediumPowerLine
Packets are transferred over wiring that is connected to a power distribution system.
NdisPhysicalMediumDSL
Packets are transferred over a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) network.
Includes, for example, ADSL and UADSL (G.Lite).
NdisPhysicalMediumFibreChannel
Packets are transferred over a Fibre Channel interconnect.
NdisPhysicalMedium1394
Packets are transferred over an IEEE 1394 bus.
NdisPhysicalMediumWirelessWan
Packets are transferred over a Wireless WAN link. Includes, for example, CDPD, CDMA and GPRS.
NdisPhysicalMediumBluetooth
Packets are transferred over a Bluetooth network. Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology that uses the 2.4 GHz spectrum.
NdisPhysicalMediumUnspecified
The physical medium is none of the above. For example, a one-way satellite feed is an unspecified physical medium.
The OID_GEN_PHYSICAL_MEDIUM OID should be implemented in miniport drivers for NICs that support newer networks even though those networks transfer packets that appear to the operating system and to NDIS as standard and well known media types. These newer networks are listed preceding.
Newer networks transfer packets that might appear like standard media but that might have new features or slight differences from the standard. This OID was developed so upper-layer drivers and applications could determine the actual networks to which a NIC connects. After retrieving information about underlying networks, upper-layer drivers and applications could use this information to modify how such drivers and applications behave.