Patent ID: 6675308
Filing Date: 2004-01-06
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
In a computer system running on a Windowsâ„¢-based operating system, a method of determining whether a network interface card entry of a system registry of said computer system is associated with physical hardware device, said method comprising the steps of:opening a Net key entry of said system registry wherein said Net key entry includes a plurality of sub-key entries and wherein said Net key entry stores registry entries pertaining to network interface cards; opening a respective one of said plurality of sub-key entries; examining a driver description string stored within said respective sub-key entry; provided that a value stored as part of said driver description string matches said network interface card entry, opening an â€œNdiâ€  key under said respective sub-key entry and searching for a backslash character within a device identification string under said â€œNdiâ€  key, wherein presence of said backslash character indicates that said network interface card entry is associated with physical hardware device.