My questionis not directly related to Vista but I was told this would be a good place to find an answer. If it is not the correct forum I can move it. I am writing an application that requires Internet connectivity. I need to test the recovery procedures and would like to know if there is any difference between physically unplugging the network cable and disabling the network in the control panel. I have talked with developers that say disabling will work fine and other that say disabling is removing a software component and not a realistic simulation. Can someone tell me which I should be doing and why? I have tried both and I get the same results. I am curious as to who is correct. Thanks.

hello, the difference that i know pertains to laptops and not 100% sure abt desktops..if u disable the ethernet card, it will still be there in the device manager. but if u remove the enet cable then the ethernet device disappears from the device manager. This will only happen if we set the "allow this device to be turned off to save power" in the enet device power management properties. this option is available for desktops also, but usually doesnt work the same way.. cheers..