Installation Requirements for Network Adapters

This topic summarizes the installation requirements for network adapters.

Note  NDIS 6.0 and later drivers support a set of standardized INF keywords for network devices.

General Requirements

INF File Section Status Comments

Version Section

Required

Class= Net

ClassGuid= {4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

INF SourceDisksNames Section and INF SourceDisksFiles Section

Required if ...

Required if the INF file is not distributed with Windows 2000. If the INF file is distributed with Windows 2000, a LayoutFile entry must be specified in the Version section, and the SourceDisksNames and SourceDisksFiles sections are not used.

No network-specific requirements.

INF DestinationDirs Section

Required

No network-specific requirements.

ControlFlags Section

Required

Must contain an ExcludeFromSelect entry for each Plug and Play (PnP) adapter installed by the INF file.

Non-PnP adapters, such as non-PnP ISA and EISA adapters, should not be listed. Note that Windows XP and later operating systems do not support non-PnP ISA adapters and EISA adapters.

INF Manufacturer Section

Required

No network-specific requirements.

Models Section

Required

The hw-id must match the hardware ID supplied by the adapter to the PnP manager.

DDInstall Section

Required

Characteristics entry

Allowable values:

NCF_VIRTUAL,

NCF_SOFTWARE_ENUMERATED, NCF_PHYSICAL, NCF_MULTIPORT_INSTANCED_ADAPTER, NCF_HAS_UI, NCF_HIDDEN, NCF_NOT_USER_REMOVABLE

NCF_VIRTUAL, NCF_SOFTWARE_ENUMERATED, and NCF_PHYSICAL are mutually exclusive.

The BusType entry is required for a physical adapter.

The EisaCompressedId entry is required for an EISA adapter. This entry specifies both an EISA Compressed ID and an adapter mask for the adapter. Windows XP and later operating systems do not support EISA adapters.

A Port1DeviceNumber or Port1FunctionNumber entry is required for a multiport network adapter.

DDInstall.Services Section

Required

No network-specific requirements.

Add-registry-sections

Required

Creating the Ndi Key

Specifying service-related values

Specifying Bundle Membership(only for LBFO miniport drivers)

Specifying Binding Interfaces

Allowable binding interfaces:

UpperRange:

ndis5, ndisatm, ndiswan, ndiscowan, noupper, ndis5_atalk, ndis5_dlc, ndis5_ip, ndis5_ipx, ndis5_nbf, ndis5_streams

LowerRange:

ethernet, atm, tokenring, serial, fddi, baseband, broadband, arcnet, isdn, localtalk, wan

Optional

Setting static parameters for the component

Requiring the Installation of Another Network Component

Specifying Configuration Parameters for the Advanced Properties Page

Specifying Custom Property Pages for Network Adapters

INF Strings Section

Required

No network-specific requirements.

Additional Requirements for WAN Adapters

WAN adapters have additional installation requirements that are described in the following topics:

Specifying WAN Endpoints for a WAN Adapter

Specifying ISDN Keys and Values for an ISDN Adapter

Installing a Multiprotocol WAN NIC

Note  The Remove Section and Notify Objects for Network Components are not supported.