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Adding a NIC

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The following description starts with the loading of the miniport driver and describes how a NIC is added. For the initial processing that the PnP manager performs when a NIC is added to a running system, see steps 1-11 of Adding a PnP Device to a Running System.

  1. If the miniport driver for the NIC is not already loaded, the PnP manager loads the driver and then calls the miniport driver's DriverEntry function. If the driver is already loaded, processing continues with step 4.

  2. From its DriverEntry function, the miniport driver registers as a miniport drivers and performs other drivers initialization. For more information about registering as a miniport driver, see Initializing a Miniport Driver.

  3. NDIS fills in the following entries in the driver object for the miniport driver:

    • The entry point for the AddDevice routine.
    • The DispatchXxx entry points for handling IRPs.
    • The entry point for the Unload routine.

  4. The PnP manager calls NDIS's AddDevice routine. NDIS's AddDevice routine creates a functional device object (FDO) for the newly added NIC and attaches this FDO to the device stack for the NIC.

  5. NDIS reads information from the registry to obtain configuration information for the NIC. This information includes binding information and the hardware attributes of the NIC.

  6. The PnP manager assigns resources to the NIC, if necessary.