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Rawether for Windows
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 | Provide NDIS 6 protocol drivers for use on Windows Vista
and later platforms. |
| Maintain application compatibility with recent Rawether
versions to the extent practical. |
| Continue to make improvements to the Rawether
documentation. |
| Move driver development forward to the Windows Windows 7 WDK (Build 7600.16385.1). |
This release provided NDIS 6 protocol drivers for use on Windows Vista and later Windows platforms. This release includes 64-bit NDIS 6 drivers for the mentioned platforms. There are now four drivers in the Rawether Suite:
| Pre-Vista Platforms | Vista and Later Platforms | |
| Single-Packet Read Driver | PcaSp50 | PcaSp60 |
| Multi-Packet Read Driver | PcaMp50 | PcaMp60 |
There are 64-Bit Editions of each of these drivers. The 64-Bit drivers have
exactly the same names as their 32-bit counterparts. Please remember this if you
encounter conflicting information elsewhere in this document.
The Rawether NDIS 5 drivers provided in this release for pre-Vista Windows platform support are essentially unchanged from those provided in Rawether V5.7.
Windows Vista and later continue to support NDIS 5 protocol drivers such as the Rawether drivers provided in previous Rawether releases. However, NDIS 6 is the "native" NDIS version for Windows Vista and later operating systems. There may be some benefit to migrating from NDIS 5 to NDIS 6 NDIS protocol drivers. The possible benefits include:
| Performance - Some performance improvement may be achieved
because NDIS will not need to perform NDIS_PACKET to NET_BUFFER
translations. |
| Pause/Restart Behavior - When NDIS 5 drivers are present in a
NDIS 6 network driver stack the NDIS 6 Pause/Restart features cannot be used
as efficiently as they are intended to be used. In some situations, such as
power transitions, NDIS 5 drivers must be unbound from the underlying
miniports instead of being simply paused. |
| Access to NDIS 6 Functionality - For example, only NDIS 6 drivers can make requests using NdisRequestMethod. |
The only new Rawether API function that has been added is the addition of the W32N_MakeMethodRequest function. This allows Rawether applications to make NDIS OID requests using NDIS request type NdisRequestMethod. This small change to the Rawether API, the NDIS 6 protocol driver allows use of NDIS OID requests that are only available on Vista and later Windows platforms. For example, the NDIScope MFC application has been enhanced to illustrate fetching the Native Wi-Fi adapter BSS list using W32N_MakeMethodRequest and OID_DOT11_ENUM_BSS_LIST and a few other Native 802.11 OIDs.
The NDIScope sample application has been modified to display a limited amount of information about NDIS 6 Native 802.11 adapters.
Most Rawether applications that run successfully under Rawether V5.5, V5.6 or V5.7 should run with only a recompile under Rawether V6.0 and the new NDIS 6 protocol drivers.
Applications that operate only on Ethernet adapters should continue to work with no changes on Windows Vista/Windows 7. You may encounter some cases where you may need to enhance your application to make use of new NDIS features that are only present on Windows Vista/Windows 7.
NDIS 5 protocol drivers can be installed by simply copying the driver executable to the System32\Drivers folder and then registering the driver service using the Service Control Manager (SCM). A tool called LegacyInstall was provided in prior Rawether versions to automate the SCM installation.
NDIS 6 protocol drivers cannot be installed using the SCM. Instead, a "driver package" must be provided to the Windows network configuration and installation engine.
A driver package consists of:
| Driver executable. |
| Companion device setup information (INF) file(s). |
| Companion digitally-signed driver security catalog (CAT) file(s). |
Accordingly, Rawether V6.0 and later no longer support the "legacy" SCM protocol install method. Only the INF/CAT protocol installation method is supported.
The "Poor Man's Driver Renaming" method available in prior Rawether versions cannot be used with the INF/CAT protocol installation method. When the drivers are renamed the INF and CAT files must also be modified, which would invalidate the security catalog digital signature.
Please read this topic carefully. It contains important information relating to successfully installing your Rawether-based product on Windows Vista.
If you are considering using Rawether for Windows, then we recommend that you examine the Win32 NDIS API in detail. Here's how:
Rawether Guide V6.0, Including the Win32 NDIS Programmer's Reference. RawetherGuide
NOTE: HTML Help (.chm) are considered to be "executable files". Like any executable file, a HTML Help file can potentially be used to infect your computer with malicious code. Because of this, when you download these HTML Help files they may not display properly on your computer.
If you are using Windows and the HTML Help file does not display correctly, follow these steps:
The file should be viewable after following these steps.
Follow the link below to download and install the Rawether for Windows V6.0 Sample Executables. The downloaded components include the NDIScope MFC application and the supporting runtime DLL and NDIS protocol driver components as well as additional utilities and tools.
The NDIScope sample application illustrates techniques for choosing an adapter from your application and provides a very basic packet monitoring capability that simply makes HEX dumps of raw Ethernet packets to the console. NDIScope also has a "Properties" facility that illustrates making and interpreting NDIS OIDs from an application.
Sources to NDIScope are included in the Rawether SDK.
This version Rawether can be installed on Windows XP through Windows Vista/7.
This version of Rawether does include NDIS 6 protocol drivers for Windows Vista and later platforms.
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