Path: news.mitre.org!blanket.mitre.org!agate!newsgate.duke.edu!nntprelay.mathworks.com!news.pn.com!nntp.pn.com!main.Germany.EU.net!main.de.uu.net!Dortmund.Germany.EU.net!dortmund.de.uu.net!spock.skd.de!not-for-mail From: "Stephan Wolf" Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.vxd,comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.nt.kernel-mode Subject: Re: Difference between NDIS 3.x and 4.0 Date: Mon, 01 Dec 1997 12:19:32 GMT Organization: SysKonnect Lines: 33 Message-ID: <3482a7c2.1870970@spock> References: <0ef_9711301806@arsnova.xs4all.nl> NNTP-Posting-Host: swolf.skd.de X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.11/32.235 Xref: news.mitre.org comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.vxd:14663 comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.nt.kernel-mode:5487 On 30 Nov 97 12:09:15 GMT, ewold@arsnova.xs4all.nl (Ewold Kok) wrote in newsgroup "comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.vxd": >Can someone tell me what the difference is between NDIS 3.x an 4.0 The most important difference is that packets received by the NIC Miniport driver can only be passed to the NDIS Wrapper (and thus to the protocols) as lookahead data in NDIS 3. The protocols must then *immediately* (i.e. synchronously) copy the received data to some internal buffer, if they want to keep it. In NDIS 4, the NIC Miniport can choose to pass *ownership* of the buffer holding received packets to NDIS and its clients. The protocol(s) will asynchronously return the buffer(s) back to the Miniport later. Thus, the received data doesn't have to be copied by the protocol(s) in most cases. Also new in NDIS 4: - Multiple packets per receive/send indication. - "Full Duplex" mode, i.e. the Miniport can tell NDIS to call its send routine at any time (i.e. even if some other Miniport routine is already active). - Some new NDIS functions have been added like NdisMGetSystemTime(). Nothing really important, but making life easier. Note: General NDIS forum is "comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.nt.kernel-mode". Stephan Wolf http://www.syskonnect.de SysKonnect - The Server Connectivity Company