Phantom Modem?

[Pilgrim]

The other day I was reading something where someone was advised to 'Show Hidden Devices' in Device Manager.
I had never heard of this before, so yesterday I had a look and got a surprise.

Under Network adapters it was showing 2 modems although I only have 1 and there is only normally 1 showing.
The listings were identical for both except that the second one had #2 in all the items.

After backing up the registry I removed all the #2 listings and although I had to run chkdsk to sort out the after effects I now have the right number of items in Device Manager.

Makes me wonder what else I have on here that I don't know about?

[Boyfriend]

@Pilgrim-online
#2 appears with device under two conditions:

1. You installed the device --> uninstalled it later (unsuccessful driver uninstall) --> Reinstalled the device --> As same device/device ID, Windows will classify it as #2
2. You installed Windows --> Installed all devices/drivers --> Use sysprep method to create generalized image --> Device doesn't work after restore --> You install it again without uninstalling previous version and will get #2 along with device name.

The above two assumptions are based on my practical experience. There might be other causes too.

[hellnoire]

Another option is if you use any Virtual Machine program. Or a firewall. They'll install custom "drivers" that just take advantage of your modem.

[Boyfriend]

#2 with device name in device manager means same device is already installed and user has installed same device again due to some problem/reinstallation.

[brayden]

When you open up that network connection and then look at the stats does it have an allocated IP address, does it have a DNS name or subnet mask? If not it's not even connected and don't bother. Is it wireless based perhaps? Maybe it's just your neighbour's router showing up. Sometimes if you change routers, or if your DHCP allocation changes on your router you'll be allocated all this different data and rather than modifying the original Windows sometimes just makes a new connection (I got static IP address setup yet Windows has made like 6 network connections for that one connection, only one works of course.). Finally, as Hellnoire suggested, if You have a Virtual Machine like VirtualBox or VMware they have a bad habit of making heaps of network connections.

Just out of boredom I made a little chart of all my unused connections and what they are, I used to have 5 other connections that were dedicated to one card but I removed them later. It used to be a real clogged up screen, and because a lot of members have extremely slow, congested and horrible internets in general I'll give you a link so you have the option of looking, heh.
http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/7...tionschart.png
Heh, I guess I take ADSL2+ for granted.

[INDRANIL]

What is the details of that #2 (Eg - WAN Miniport ( PPP over ethernet protocol) or WAN Miniport (Ip) etc ) ??

[Pilgrim]

Firstly thank you all for your replies.

Boyfriend,

I understood the significance of #2 and I think I can pinpoint when it happened.
My ISP is AOL, when I started using a computer and I knew no better I just let their installation CD run which besides the modem drivers installed their browser and loads of other unwanted junk which I never used and later decided I did not want.
At one point they changed their system and although that did not as such affect users, if at any time after you had a problem they told you to renew the adapter and password.
When this happened to me, although they never told me, I realised that all I actually needed was the modem drivers and then to create the adapter.
What must have happened is that when I uninstalled their software it must have left the drivers behind, there were several uninstallers for different parts of the software and I must have missed the one for the drivers, possibly because it did not show up in the same place as the modem is a BT Voyager 105 and has a separate installation folder, so when I reinstalled the drivers I got #2 which would not normally show up in Device Manager.

hellnoire,

You hit the nail on the head there.

I normally use VirtualBox which, as far I am aware, does not add anything to the network adapters in fact after reading your post and the one by brayden I started it up, I had to run a repair, which is probably related to what I did yesterday, I ran both guests and connected to the internet with them, without any changes to the network adapters.

I did find a lot of virtual machine adapters yesterday which I have since removed but the cause was Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 which I also had installed.
The strange thing about this was that when I read about it yesterday it's not supposed to run on XP Home which is what I have.

What I finished up doing was uninstalling and then reinstalling the network hardware devices I have, a modem, an ethernet card, and a wireless adapter, that removed all the extra entries.

The Device Manager now shows this, including hidden devices:

Image 1.jpg

While Network Connections look like this:

Image 2.jpg

brayden,

All my connections except for the 'Local Area Connection' are set to automatic.

While I do have a wireless adapter and a router, by default I use an ADSL Modem and connect my Netbook by a cross-over CAT6 cable.

As you can see by the image, when not in use all adapters are disabled so there is no way I can pick up anything outside my own set-up.

INDRANIL,

The #2 connections were a copy of the modem connections, I never checked them but I suspect the settings would have been the same as the other one.


Eventually I expect I shall connect my router as default, probably using a wired network as I recently bought another CAT6 cable to do just that, but at the moment it is more practical to use the modem, over a period of time it is also cheaper as the modem is USB powered while the router has its own power supply.

[hellnoire]

Well, you know that Virtual XP that only Professional users are supposed to get, right?

I've got it working on Windows 7 Home Premium

They need to work on their control system. Honor only goes so far.