How to Write NDIS 3 MAC Drivers for WFW 3.11 or Windows 95

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Windows Device Drvier Development Kit (DDK) for Windows version 3.1

It is too late to start development of NDIS 3 drivers for Windows for Workgroups version 3.11 because the compiler you need (Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit edition, version 1.0 or 1.1) is no longer available.

If your goal is to get your net card working on multiple platforms as quickly and easily as possible, write a Windows NT Mini port driver. A mini port driver written for Windows NT version 3.1 or 3.5 is binary compatible with Windows 95. Development for this driver is done under the Windows NT Environment and cannot be done under Windows 95 or Windows version 3.x.

You will need the hardware and software necessary to run Windows NT if you want to develop a complete NDIS 3 compliant MAC driver under Windows 95. It would be more cost effective for you to buy the extra hardware or software that you need and then sell it when you are finished than it would be to take the development time to write a complete NDIS 3 compliant MAC driver under Windows 95 -- which is not binary compatible to Windows NT. Writing a mini port is much simpler because most of the coding is already done for you.