VIA ethernet -- what is NDIS for and do I need it?

[yaugin]

I'm updating the drivers for my system, which has an onboard VIA Rhine
ethernet controller. Over at viaarena they have two drivers listed, a
"Rhine" driver with NDIS and a "LAN" driver.

They don't really explain what the difference is, or if you need both.
Previously, I just installed the driver from my m/b disc but it is far
outdated (the driver date is five years older than the current ones at
VIA).

 

[Conor]

I'm updating the drivers for my system, which has an onboard VIA Rhine
ethernet controller. Over at viaarena they have two drivers listed, a
"Rhine" driver with NDIS and a "LAN" driver.

They don't really explain what the difference is, or if you need both.
Previously, I just installed the driver from my m/b disc but it is far
outdated (the driver date is five years older than the current ones at
VIA).

NDIS is an API which allows applications to talk to the network card.
It's a library of functions which allow the applications to talk to it
to gain access to the functions of the network card instead of the
network card itself. Think of DirectX for networking.