Wide Area Network Mini Port (WAN Mini Port)

A wide area network mini port (WAN mini port) is a driver that permits alternative connection methods in Windows XP and later version of Windows such as point-to-point protocol over Ethernet (PPoE) and wireless networking making WAN setup possible.

A WAN mini port is a driver that identifies itself while registering. It does so by calling certain functions, which also specify their entry points.

There are two different types of WAN miniports:

1)NDIS WAN

2)CoNDIS WAN

Both are miniport drivers which manage the data transfer to and fro from computers at network adapter card. CoNDIS has greater functionalities as compared to NDIS for controlling the WAN data communications. CoNDIS is supported by newer versions of operating systems only. While NDIS is supported by older as well as newer versions of operating systems.