7.1.1 Installing NDIS WAN drivers

This section provides information on how to install an NDIS WAN driver such that Remote Access setup can be configured to use that driver.

Write a configuration utility that installs the driver. Package the configuration utility as a DLL that can be started from the network control panel by using an installation script (.inf file). Users can then install the NIC by using the network control panel application, clicking the “Add Adapter” button, and installing the correct driver.

Port Naming

ISDN Adapters: ISDN1, ISDN2, ... ISDNm
Switched 56 Adapters: Sw56_1, Sw56_2, ... Sw56_m
X.25 Adapters: X25_1, X25_2, ... X25_m.

    where m represents the number of the card starting with one.

Windows NT Registry

Service providers should store their configured data in the following location and format in the registry. If the TAPI DEVICES key does not already exist, the service provider setup script should create the key and add the entries corresponding to the addresses configured by the user. This installation script should remove the service provider key and the corresponding value if (or when) the user deletes the WAN miniport from the network control panel application.

A detailed description of each key follows the registry layout shown here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
    SOFTWARE
        MICROSOFT
            RAS
                TAPI DEVICES
                   Service Provider 1
                        Media Type: REG_SZ:  media_type
                        Address: REG_MULTI_SZ:  address1  address2 ..addressN

                   Service Provider 2
                        Media Type: REG_SZ:  media_type
                        Address: REG_MULTI_SZ:  address1  address2 ..addressN

                   . . .

                   Service Provider N
                        Media Type: REG_SZ:  media_type
                        Address: REG_MULTI_SZ:  address1  address2 ..addressN

Service Provider N

This is the name of the service provider. This name corresponds to the service name in the registry, for example, ISDNDRV, X25DRV, SW56DRV, and so forth.

Media Type

This is the name of the media type, for example ISDN, X25_, Sw56_, and so forth. RAS setup uses the ServiceProvider and MediaType entries to make the friendly name in the absence of a friendly name, for example, X25DRVX25_1, SW56DRVSw56_1, and so forth.

Address

This is a list of addresses that uniquely identifies each end point. Each address is a string made up of the following three elements:

• Net adapter number ¾ this corresponds to the network card number associated with the device adapter. For example, if there are two ISDN cards associated with the same service provider, each card has a corresponding net adapter number. These net adapter numbers are enumerated in the NetworkCards key in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
  \SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion registry tree.

• Line Number ¾ this is the number that identifies the particular line within each adapter.

• End Point ¾ if a line supports more than one end point (for example, channel number in the case of ISDN or port number for serial ports), this value corresponds to that end point, otherwise it defaults to zero.

The following example shows how the registry might look if there were an ISDN adapter with one line supporting either or both channels; an X25 adapter supporting 4 virtual circuits; and two Switched 56K adapters, one with a single line and another with two lines, both adapters supported by the same driver. The NetworkCards key is assumed to have assigned the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 to these adapters.

Example

    ISDNDRV
                        Media Type: REG_SZ: ISDN
                        Address REG_MULTI_SZ “1 1 0” “1 1 1” “1 1 3”
    X25DRV
                        Media Type: REG_SZ: X25_
                        Address: REG_MULTI_SZ: “2 1 0” “2 1 1" “2 1 2” “2 1 3”
    SW56DRV
                        Media Type: REG_SZ: Sw56_
                        Address: REG_MULTI_SZ: “3 1 0” “4 1 0” “4 2 0”