2 Windows 2003 network drivers????

[wobbe]

Why are there 2 windows 2003 network drivers for the NC-Broadcom series listed on the HP site? What are their purposes?

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=4091432&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=4091412&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=1005#11395

[Johan Guldmyr]

Hi, I searched that page for NC-Broadcom and there are no such hits.

Which drivers are you referring to?
Is it these two: ?

HP NC-Series Broadcom 1Gb Driver for Windows Server 2003

HP NC-Series Broadcom 1Gb Multifunction Driver for Windows Server 2003

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If so, if you click on the links you will then see that the multifunction driver also has some other stuff included, like iSCSI offload driver and diagnostics.

[wobbe]

Yes, that's what I was talking about. See attached screenshot.
I guess my question should be; if I only want to uses network teaming what would be the best driver to use?

[Michael A. McKenney]

Multifunction would be my choice. Upgrade the firmware on the server before. Sometimes you need new firmware for the newer drivers.

[Johan Guldmyr]

Don't forget the NCU or HP network software to set up the actual teaming :)

[Terry Hutchings]

You didn't provide any info on the type of server you need drivers for. You're obviously going to be using the multifunction for those type and the straight 1 Gb NICs will use the other that you highlighted.

[wobbe]

The server is a DL380G7.
I'm using 2 out of 4 nic's for a default network team. (transfer load balancing)

I guess the multifunction driver gets installed by default with smartstart.
This is probably the reason I've never noticed the other driver.
We are having lots of problems with the TCP scaling option in a mixed windows / linux environment so I'm thinking of using the other driver. But I do want to keep using network teaming if posible.