How to Develop a Connectionless NDIS Miniport Driver (Windows CE 5.0)

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If your target device has a network adapter that is not directly supported by Windows CE, or you want your target device to support multiple PC Card network adapters, you must develop an NDIS miniport driver.

Hardware and Software Assumptions

To track your progress in the following table, select the check box next to each step.

  Step Topic
1. Familiarize yourself with the NDIS wrapper, which is a library that you can use to develop NDIS miniport drivers and network protocol drivers. The wrapper abstracts portions of the OS and provides supporting functions. NDIS Library Functions
2. Examine the NDIS miniport driver samples in %_PUBLICROOT%\Common\OAK\Drivers\Netcard, and use the techniques shown in these samples to implement your NDIS miniport driver. NDIS Miniport Driver Samples
3. Add the Wired Local Area Network Catalog item to your OS design.
  • You can add the Wired Local Area Network Catalog item either from the Catalog or by setting the SYSGEN_ETHERNET environment variable.
Adding an Item from the Catalog
4. Exclude Vmini.dll from your OS design by setting the BSP_NOSHAREETH and IMGNOSHAREETH environment variables. Setting or Clearing an Environment Variable
5. Add your NDIS miniport driver to your OS design. Adding an NDIS Miniport Driver to a Run-Time Image
6. Implement the NDIS miniport driver functions. NDIS Miniport Driver Implementation
7. Build the run-time image. Building a Run-Time Image
8. Download the run-time image to the target device. Downloading a Run-Time Image
9. With the CETK, use the One-Card Network Card Miniport Driver Test or Two-Card Network Card Miniport Driver Test to test the NDIS miniport driver.

If you also want to check the network connection through the NDIS miniport driver, you can do so by browsing the Web or another type of network. You might have to configure your Internet settings to use a proxy server.

How to Test an NDIS Miniport Driver

See Also

How-to Topics | Miniports, Intermediate Drivers, and Protocol Drivers | Network Drivers | Tools for Debugging and Testing | Troubleshooting a Device Driver | How to Migrate a Windows-based Desktop NDIS Miniport Driver to Windows CE| Adding a Device Driver to the Catalog

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