1394 Network Adapter -- Why do I want this?

[Guest]

I have a Dell Notebook with a Broadband wireless NIC, and a built-in Intel
NIC. When I look in Network connections I see both the Broadband Wireless
and the Intel NIc, but I also see a 1394 and Bridge Adapters. Why do I need
the 1394 and Bridge adapters. They just seem to cause problems.

Currently the wireless network connects but the Intel does not totally. The
network status indicates that it is connected but the network connection may
bew slow. The 1394 connection seems to be working fine. I don't have a 1394
adapter on this PC. Why do I want this?

I have deleted the bridge, 1394 and Intel adapters, and let the Plug-n-Play
find the network adapters and the 1394 is back? The connection still doesn't
work. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Carey Holzman]

1394 is just firewire. Firewire is like USB. If you have no firewire
devices, just disable the 1394 adapter by right-clicking on it and select
disable.

Carey

 

[Guest]

Thankyou Carey. I don't believe there are Firewire devices on this laptop.

I see this from time to time on laptops, have never understood it, always
disabled or deleted it and had things work fine.

I just always wonder why Windows finds something that is not there and won't
let go of it.

Alan

 

[Ken Wickes [MSFT]]

Ah, but it is there if you have a firewire port. You can run a network over
firewire, just like you can over ethernet. It's just like having a LAN card
with no cable plugged in.

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

Ah, but it is there if you have a firewire port. You can run a network over
firewire, just like you can over ethernet. It's just like having a LAN card
with no cable plugged in.

Ken,

in many cases the network fails when there is a bridged Firewire
connection. That is the underlying problem. Otherwise people
could leave the Firewire connection and the bridge in place and
live happily.

I haven't yet heard any plausible explanation why these problems
arise, but I keep reading that the LAN connection begins to work
flawlessly only after the Firewire connection is disabled and
the bridge removed.

Hans-Georg

 

[Jeff G]

Ken,

in many cases the network fails when there is a bridged Firewire
connection. That is the underlying problem. Otherwise people
could leave the Firewire connection and the bridge in place and
live happily.

I haven't yet heard any plausible explanation why these problems
arise, but I keep reading that the LAN connection begins to work
flawlessly only after the Firewire connection is disabled and
the bridge removed.

Hans-Georg

H-G:

Agreed - and that's not the only thing that an unused firewire adapter can
hose up in windows... Although eventually, Creative Labs did write new XP
drivers for their sound cards taking the "network" connection into
consideration, the drivers were corrected well after I pulled the sound card
from my machine so that I could use the NIC for my network connection and my
sound card as an audio device...

IMHO, XP should ASK me if I want to bind network protocols to what is
supposed to be a video/audio capture device, not treat it as an Ethernet
connection simply because it COULD be used as one. Don't Microsoft's own
"best practices" tell you not to install unneeded network services?

JeffG