Media Sense in Windows 2000

 Murat Yildirimoglu (21/01/2003)

 

New to the Windows 2000 is the media sense function: Windows 2000 can sense the media (local area connection) and display its current status on the system tray. So we can easily see if the cable is connected to the card. But there is a disadvantage of this new function: When you try the Active Directory (AD) installation on a Windows 2000 Server that is not connected to a network yet, installation fails. You can overcome this hurdle in two ways:

1) If you install NetBEUI network protocol on the server prior to the AD installation, installation does not fail.

2) If you loop back you network card, you can deceive this new function simulating a real network. To do this you can prepare an RJ45 connector with some pins short circuited to the related ones. 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps network cards use only 4 pins: 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 6th ones. If you connect 1st-3rd and 2nd-6th pins you will have a loop back adapter: Transmit pins are connected to the receive pins and media sense function senses a "real" network.