Hey Folks, We have a Windows 7 Pro x64 laptop on our Server 2008 domain that seems to be generating new logical NICs (Local Area Connection #XXX) upon each boot of the OS. This results in new MAC addresses per NIC, thus defeating DHCP reservation assignment. Ultimately, this prevents our end user from accessing sites that we allow thru our corporate firewall for her reserved DHCP hosts. I discovered this article which I believe is the issue, however downloading the recommended hotfix did not resolve the problem: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980486 Have attempted removing the excessive NICs from Device Manager per another recommendation I found, but the trouble persists. Has anyone encountered this and successfully resolved? If so, would love to know your solution and attempt it! Thanks, Tom W.

Hi Tom, Would you please let me know how many network cards on the computer? If any unknown network adapter appears in Device Manager, just delete it directly and restart the computer to check if it appears again. Regarding the multiple "Local Area Connections", you can disable them to avoid DHCP reservation assignment. If any error is received, please capture a screenshot. How to capture a screenshot ------------------------------------------ 1. When the error message occurs, press the Print Screen key (PrtScn) on your keyboard. 2. Click the "Start" menu, type "mspaint" in the Search Bar and Press Enter. 3. In the Paint program, click the "Edit" menu, click "Paste", click the "File" menu, and click "Save". 4. Save the picture onto your desktop and Upload to SkyDrive. Best Regards, NikiPlease remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Thanks Niki, We had already been thru the cursory items like that. After much fanfare and several hours speaking with the Windows 7 support team, we ruled that this was failing hardware. We blew away the OS and reinstalled it several times with the same results - even when we installed Linux! Thankfully, this machine was still within warranty and has since been returned for store credit.JTW