First at all excuse me for my bad english, second I have a little question :-) ¿What is the difference between a network provider and a network protocol? Both are installed in the System for allow the computer interact with some components of the network. But, what is extactly the difference? I know protocols are installed on the machine and have to be bound to a specific connection, in the other hand network providers are not bound to a connection. Why? How does Windows manage them? Thank you very much and best regards,Ricardo Polo "HodracirK" HodracirK.com

Hi Ricardo, Thanks for the post! A network provider is a DLL that supports a specific network protocol. You can refer to this Microsoft official article http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa378775(VS.85).aspx for more information. A network protocol defines rules and conventions for communication between network devices. Protocols for computer networking all generally use packet switching techniques to send and receive messages in the form of packets. Network protocols include mechanisms for devices to identify and make connections with each other, as well as formatting rules that specify how data is packaged into messages sent and received. Some protocols also support message acknowledgement and data compression designed for reliable and/or high-performance network communication. Hundreds of different computer network protocols have been developed each designed for specific purposes and environments.( http://compnetworking.about.com/od/networkprotocols/g/protocols.htm ). There are kinds of these protocols, you can find them in Wikipedia: List of network protocols. It’s a very complicated process that Windows manage the network provider and the protocols, depends on different requirements and editions. If you want to learn a specific knowledge, you can find some document in our Microsoft Library http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library . Hope it helps! Please Note: Since some websites are not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information. Best Regards, Miya YaoThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. | Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.