Wide Area Network Mini Port

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What Does Wide Area Network Mini Port Mean?

A wide area network mini port (WAN mini port) is a driver that permits alternative connection methods in Windows XP and later version of Windows such as point-to-point protocol over Ethernet (PPoE) and wireless networking making WAN setup possible.

Techopedia Explains Wide Area Network Mini Port

A WAN mini port is a driver that identifies itself while registering. It does so by calling certain functions, which also specify their entry points.

There are two different types of WAN miniports:

1)NDIS WAN

2)CoNDIS WAN

Both are miniport drivers which manage the data transfer to and fro from computers at network adapter card. CoNDIS has greater functionalities as compared to NDIS for controlling the WAN data communications. CoNDIS is supported by newer versions of operating systems only. While NDIS is supported by older as well as newer versions of operating systems.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.