Unable to Bind Protocols to More Than 5 Network Adapters

When you try to add a network adapter to your computer, you may receive the following error message where number is the number of network adapters you have installed plus 1, and protocol is the protocol you are trying to add. Also, if you succeed in adding a network adapter, no network protocols may be bound to the adapter.

This issue can occur because the MaxInstance entry in the Nettrans.inf file limits the number of instances of a protocol that you can install.

To work around this issue, edit the Nettrans.inf file in the Windows\Inf folder:

1. Use any text editor (such as Wordpad) to view the Nettrans.inf file in the Windows\Inf folder.
2. Increase the MaxInstance entry for the appropriate protocol. Note that the maximum number for this entry is 8 in Windows 95/98/98SE and 10 in Windows Millennium.
3. Save the changes to the Nettrans.inf file, and then quit Notepad.

This behavior is more likely to occur with a laptop computer that is used in more than one network environment. Note that creating an additional hardware profile does not resolve this issue. The default parameter for the MaxInstance entry in the original release of Windows 95 is 8 for all protocols. The default parameter for the MaxInstance entry in Windows 95 OSR 2-2.5 is 8 for NetBEUI, and 4 for IPX/SPX and TCP/IP. The MaxInstance entry for Windows 98 is 8 for NetBEUI, 4 for IPX/SPX and 6 for TCP/IP, WinME - 8 For NetBEUI, 4 for IPX and 10 for IP.