INFO: NDIS Miniport LowerRange Registry Entry Must Describe a Valid Medium Type (326425)
The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
- Microsoft Windows 2000
- Microsoft Windows XP Driver Development Kit (DDK)
- Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
- Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition
This article was previously published under Q326425 SUMMARY
A Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) miniport must define a LowerRange in its .inf file that is a valid medium type. You cannot define an adhoc string or bus topology (for example, USB or PCI) because this causes problems for intermediate (IM) drivers.
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The LowerRange registry entry for a miniport driver is specified in the miniport's .inf file. For example, the following code from the E100BEX sample declares its lower range as Ethernet:
HKR, Ndi\Interfaces, LowerRange, 0, "Ethernet"
Valid entries are as follows. |
| ARCNET | | ATM | | BASEBAND | | BROADBAND | | ETHERNET | | FDDI | | ISDN | | IPX | | NDIS5 | | NDISWAN | | NDISATM | | NETBIOS | | NOLOWER | | NOUPPER | | STREAMS | | SERIAL | | TDI | | TOKENRING | | WINNET5 | | WINSOCK |
The ChkInf tool has been updated to verify that an NDIS miniport's LowerRange .inf entry is proper and to flag an entry that is not valid. When you run the ChkInf tool, you may receive an error message that is similar to the following:
Line nnn: (DE22.1.4005) Invalid interface "XXX" used in Addreg section
An NDIS filter intermediate driver requires that the miniport's LowerRange .inf entry be valid in order to target which mediums the IM driver will filter. The IM driver specifies the mediums that it filters in its FilterMediaTypes entry of its .inf file, as in the following sample from Passthru.exe:
HKR, Ndi\Interfaces, FilterMediaTypes, , "Ethernet, TokenRing, FDDI"
NDIS will compare the interfaces that are listed for an intermediate driver's FilterMediaTypes with the medium that is listed by each miniport's LowerRange looking for matches. Miniports that do not correctly report their lower edge will cause intermediate drivers not to bind.
| Modification Type: | Minor | Last Reviewed: | 9/28/2004 |
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| Keywords: | kbinfo kbKMode kbNDIS KB326425 kbAudDeveloper |
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