Symptoms:

At customers I have noticed that sometimes problems occur with network interfaces in Windows, either physical or virtual network interfaces. Having one or more of the following symptoms:

• A static IP Address cannot be used because (accoring to Windows) it is already in use. But there is no sign of a NIC with that specific IP Address.
• A static Default Gateway on the TCP/IP properties of your NIC is lost after reboot or directly after you apply the TCP/IP settings.
• The label “Local Area Network 2” or “Ethernet 2” cannot be renamed to “Local Area Network” or “Ethernet” because (according to Windows) that name already exists.
• A network interface is detected and shown in Device Manager as <interface-name> #2, whereas it is the only interface.

These symptoms occur when settings are left behind in the registry. Which is often caused by human error, incorrectly removing a NIC (Network Interface Card) interface, or using an OS image on another machine. Of course there is no one to blame, what seems so simple is sometimes overlooked. Troubleshooting these symptoms can take a lot of time. But in fact they are quit easy to solve. With this blog I hope to make you aware about what you should (not) do when removing or re-adding a NIC. And if you encounter such symptoms, how to solve it.  [Read more…]