What is Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Protocol and Should It Be Enabled?

One can find Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Protocol in Windows that has WiFi properties. If you want to enable only this protocol and want all the other protocols in the list to be disabled, this is not possible. It may be disabled by default in the Windows of many users.

A lot of users don’t know what is Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Protocol. Should I enable it, and why is it disabled on my PC?

If you are also the one who is also confused about it, then carry on to the article to figure it what is Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Protocol and should you have to enable it or not.

Contents

• 1  What is Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Protocol?
• 2 Use of Microsoft Network Adaptor Multiplexor Protocol
  • 2.1 Scenario 1
  • 2.2 Scenario 2
• 3 Should Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Protocol Be Enabled?
• 4 Conclusion

 What is Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Protocol?

Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Protocol is a kernel device driver. People use it for the bonding of NIC (Network Interface Card). NIC is a feature in the Windows server to be used for any network traffic and even in virtual machine networking traffic. It is mainly a setup at the hardware level. A Windows server can team with up to 32 physical network adaptors by default, but in a virtual machine, only two physical network adaptors in teaming can be assigned.

NIC teaming will configure only if there are physical network adaptors in two or more numbers of 1 GB or in two or more numbers of 10 GB. Nic teaming can also be termed as NIC bonding.  Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Protocol mainly helps to build the NIC teaming without taking the use of any utilities of a third party. Some third-party teaming solutions do not contain the option to configure teaming options remotely.

You can find Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Protocol in Windows having wi-fi features. You can call it a special set of configurations. Usually, it plays when you combine two connections that are totally different. Two ethernet cards are usually combined in order to form one physical device by the union of these different cards to increase the bandwidth.

One will notice this protocol after upgrading Windows. You can notice that all the protocols are unchecked, and Microsoft Network Adaptor Multiplexor Protocol is one of these unchecked protocols. The protocol may be installed in your device as a part of physical network adaptor initialization by default.

Use of Microsoft Network Adaptor Multiplexor Protocol

Mainly people use it in two scenarios in teaming:

Scenario 1

The first scenario is adaptor teaming, which means to use two or more adaptors at a time so that you will be able to send and receive more packets in comparison to what a single adaptor could do.

Scenario 2

The second scenario is the adaptor failover or its high availability. It simply means that there is another adaptor that comes in use over the network connection. In case if the primary adaptor fails to do so.

If you have just one adaptor hooked up with your computer, enabling this protocol will make Windows disable it automatically. When it finds out that you are not teaming up the multiple adaptors to do work together on your computer.

Should Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Protocol Be Enabled?

A lot of users are confused if they should enable it or not. The main purpose of the Protocol is only to combine Network Adaptors or to create a bridge connection. You will find the following error (as shown below) if you try to enable this option while the rest options are disabled.

“Your current selection will also disable the following features:

Microsoft Network Adaptor Multiplexor Protocol

Are you sure you want to disable these feature(s)?”

There will be two options, Yes and No, at the bottom right of the screen. In case you click on Yes, the protocol will remain disabled. The rest of the options will be enabled for your connection. In case you click on No, it will take you back on the list. It will not make any changes there.

If you try to enable only the Microsoft Network Adaptor Multiplexor Protocol while all the other options are disabled, it will again show the above error. It means that you cannot enable Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Protocol you introduce a connection to the bridge. You can say that this protocol is network adaptor independent.

Conclusion

You cannot enable the Microsoft Network Adaptor Multiplexor Protocol until you introduce a connection to the bridge. It will create automatically in case you create a bridge. It doesn’t require any manual activation.

If your computer has just one connected adaptor, the protocol should be disabled. It will enable automatically if you team up multiple network adaptors on your computer.

Hopefully, you are now able to understand about Microsoft network adaptor multiplexor protocol.