NDIS 5.x USB network adapters do not appear in Performance Monitor

Source: Microsoft Support

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Some USB Network Adapters are not listed in Performance Monitor�s list of network interfaces.

Perfmon only shows adapters that indicate that they have a physical, hardware connector.� Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 introduced a new Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) known as NDIS version 6.� Network driver developers are encouraged to move their drivers to this new specification.

Check with the network adapter vendor to see if they have drivers updated for NDIS version 6.

NDIS miniports that are developed for NDIS 6 can explicitly inform the operating system if it has a physical connector.� Those NDIS 6 miniports that indicate a physical connector will properly show up in Perfmon.

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While NDIS supports NDIS 5 drivers, it does so in a legacy, compatibility layer and does best-effort to determine if the adapter has a physical connector.� If the adapter does not have any hardware resources assigned to it, which is the case for USB NICs, NDIS assumes that the NIC does not have a connector.� Perfmon, as a result, will not list the NIC as an available network interface.

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