This document details how to uninstall and reinstall a network adapter for the purpose of troubleshooting networking problems on Windows 7, 8, and 10.
If a user is having issues connecting to or staying connected to a wired or wireless network, an easy first step at troubleshooting is to uninstall and reinstall the network adapter. This is also a good step to try if a user is able to connect to a network but are unable load web pages in their browser. This fix will bring the network adapter back to default settings and will resolve issues a large percentage of the time. If the the network adapter doesn't show up in the list it could indicate a hardware issue with the adapter.
To do this go to Device Manager / Network Adapters / Select the 'Network Adapter called' Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Driver / Properties '. The adapter settings: click Advanced / Mac Address / in 'Value', enter the new Mac address consisting of 12 characters and as numeral or letter. After the change click 'OK'. This third NIC is of the type Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Driver. If we open the properties of the NICs and the TEAM adapter, we can see that TEAM adapter has all network protocols associated with it. In the same time, our NICs have only one protocol – Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Protocol.
- Type 'Device Manager' into the search field to open the device manager console.
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- Expand the 'Network Adapters' field. This will list all network adapters that the machine has installed. Right click on the adapter you want to uninstall and select 'Uninstall'. This will remove the adapter from the list and uninstall the device. If troubleshooting a wireless issue make sure to select the correct device - the word 'Wireless' will likely be in the title.
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- Click 'Ok' when prompted to uninstall the device. This will remove the adapter from the list and uninstall the driver.
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- Once the adapter has been uninstalled click on the 'Scan for hardware changes' button to search for and reinstall the correct adapter. The icon can be hard to see - you can hover your mouse over the button to confirm you are choosing the correct one.
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If the device is successfully reinstalled it will show back up under the 'Network Adapters' drop-down. Reboot the computer and see if the connectivity issue has been resolved.
If the issue is not resolved click here for instructions on restarting the windows networking service.
| Keywords: | network troubleshooting windows microsoft adapter device manager uninstall install reinstall Suggest keywords | Doc ID: | 58029 |
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| Owner: | Mike J. | Group: | DoIT Tech Store |
| Created: | 2015-11-06 12:43 CDT | Updated: | 2018-09-24 13:13 CDT |
| Sites: | DoIT Help Desk, DoIT Tech Store | ||
| Feedback: | 174149CommentSuggest a new document | ||
After I upgraded my laptop from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, my network connectivity was gone because all protocols were unchecked in the adapter settings. When I went to go turn them all back on, I got my network connection back, but I couldn't (and still can't) enable the Multiplexor protocol. When I select it and click 'Ok', a dialog informs me that my selections will cause it to be disabled:
If I click No, it returns me to the 'Ethernet Properties' sheet with the multiplexor protocol disabled. If I click Yes, it unchecks the multiplexor protocol and then closes the dialog and property sheet.
The googler wasn't very helpful, here. There are a few threads out there in which users express the same issue, but the support they received was quite useless.
I also tried to do this in PowerShell to see if it would either a) just work, or if it would b) give me a more useful error message.
Turns out that was really too much to hope for.
While reading it did occur to me to make sure the NdisImPlatform service was running, and I made sure using sc.exe:
After this, I tried the things I described above again, but to no avail.
Also, ultimately this is yak-shaving in order to get bridged networking to work in VirtualBox, and so I thought I might try to repair the VirtualBox installation (by running the installer again), but that didn't help either.
Anybody know why this is happening in Windows 10 and how I can fix it?
3 Answers
Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Protocol should be left unticked. It is only used with NIC Teaming - i.e. where you have two physical network interfaces that are being used in a load balancing or redundant configuration. In that case the two physical NICs have only this binding ticked (all others cleared), and the team adapter has the normal bindings ticked - but not this one.
What version of Virtual Box are you running - I had the same problems, but decided to upgrade to the newly released version 5 of VirtualBox - which fixed the network adapters not displaying in Bridged mode, but I still have problems getting into the VM - Port 22 & 80 just won't connect inbound.
Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Tool Download
I can go out of the VM to the internet and can start (and connect to) the machine etc with the VirtualBox program, but I like to run things headless with VirtualBox manager on the command-line. :(
Ultimately I never found a way to fix this directly; I installed Virtual Box 5 - which I didn't realize had released until I was looking for a solution to this - and things went back to working.
Ben CollinsBen Collins