Maybe a dumb question

"Richard" <rwskinnernospam@awesomenet-period-net> wrote in
news:O06OlXuTEHA.2128@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl:

> Wow, I'm glad I'm not the only one that has no clue to what the
> WanMini Ports do. But that still leaves me in the dark.
> These cause tons of stuff to be pulled into my image and I'd like to
> do away with them if possible.
>
> "Richard" <rwskinnernospam@awesomenet-period-net> wrote in message
> news:e0K$GrcTEHA.3596@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...

>> What are Wan Mini Ports, and do I need them? I figure since I use
>> Remote Desktop and Filesharing that they may be needed? Search on
>> MSDN talks

> about

>> them in general but really doesn say what they are or do.

OK, I had to look this up myself (Google search), but I found someone
out there who gave me some clues about what they are.

WAN drivers are the new name for generic networking drivers for XP -
they used to be LAN drivers, now they're LAN/WAN driver, or simply WAN
drivers. There are three major types - WAN drivers providing normal
NDIS functions (ndiswan.sys), a RAS driver providing L2TP (layer 2
tunneling protocol) services (rasl2tp.sys), and a PPTP driver for VPN's
(raspptp.sys). All use the miniport driver model, which means there are
two drivers per device - the miniport providing the base services and a
device driver that interfaces with the HW (I think that's right - check
http://msdn.microsoft.com for more info on miniport drivers).

The upshot is that all network drivers require the standard NDIS
miniport drivers, and the WAN miniport components implement those base
miniport drivers. Get rid of them at your own risk.

--
--Jon, MS

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.