27

I did "ipconfig" today and found about 10 network interfaces, most of them disconnected.

How can I diagnose this? Where can I remove them?

Edit:

The extra network appear like this:

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 16

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 17

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 18

...

5
  • Are you running any Virtual Machines? Do you have VPN connections set up to the workplace etc?
    – Joe Taylor
    Dec 4, 2010 at 9:31
  • might very well be due to VPN indeed. I've seen pcs with over hundred of these, not sure why, must be a bad configuration.
    – stijn
    Dec 4, 2010 at 9:35
  • @Joe, @stijn, No special VPN configuration that I'm aware of
    – ripper234
    Dec 4, 2010 at 10:00
  • You probably should change the title something like: How to remove unwanted tunnel adapter connections? Since the real question is about removing the connection? Instead of why are they there.
    – SgtOJ
    Dec 4, 2010 at 14:29
  • This is why I asked you to change the title. How to remove unwated tunnel adapter? Google Search. Your question is listed as #1 now.
    – SgtOJ
    Dec 4, 2010 at 23:32

3 Answers 3

24

How to remove the unwanted Tunnel Adapters via Device Manager:

(This solution has been tested and confirmed to work)

  • Open Start Menu
  • Type In: Device Manager
  • Select Device Manager
  • Click the View menu from the top
  • Select Show Hidden Devices (Must be check before continuing)
  • Scroll down and expand Network Adapters
  • Right-Click a duplicated Microsoft 6to4 Adapter or Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
  • Select Uninstall
  • Click OK for the pop-up warning message
  • Repeat and repeat for each of the unwanted duplicated adapter
  • Close Device Manager when finish

Credit: Microsoft Answer's Moderator Nicholas Li per this post.

Warning: It's always a good idea to create system restore point before making any systems changes.


So what is tunnel adapter?

Tunneling is how to do secure communications across an untrusted network such as the internet. If you look at "description" of each connection, via ipconfig /all, it will probably the contain either ISATAP or 6over4. Find information about Tunnel Adapters at Wikipedia.

5
  • I don't see "Network Connections" link from Network and Sharing Center. Also, I only see two wireless networks from "Manage Wireless Networks", and one of them I use at work.
    – ripper234
    Dec 4, 2010 at 9:22
  • See my edit about Tunnel adapter
    – ripper234
    Dec 4, 2010 at 9:23
  • I updated my answer. I also fix the step to Manage Network Connections.
    – SgtOJ
    Dec 4, 2010 at 10:30
  • Yeah, but how do I remove them?
    – ripper234
    Dec 4, 2010 at 11:06
  • Answer updated. I have tested it and confirmed that this works.
    – SgtOJ
    Dec 4, 2010 at 22:39
7

These adapters are part of the Microsoft implementation of the iPv6 TCP/IP address protocol. You will find you have quite a lot of them, at least one per each defined network adapter. You also probably have VMware player installed, which adds several network adapters potentially used by virtual machines.

These dummy adapters are called "Automatic Tunneling Pseudo-Interface" for encapsulating IPv6 packets with an IPv4 header so that they can be sent across an IPv4 network. This probably means that your local network is at the moment both iPv4 and iPv6, and these adapters are created "just in case".

If you are working on a local network, you have no need of iPv6, since 4-byte TCP/IP addresses are quite sufficient for the number of computers. To get rid of these dummy adapters do:

  1. Open up Control Panel -> Network and Sharing Center.
  2. For each network connection :
    • Click "View status", then Properties.
    • Uncheck the mark next to "Internet protocol version 6 (TCP/IPv6)".
    • Click OK, then Close.
  3. When all adapters are done, reboot.

This will leave only iPv4 interfaces defined on your computer, and will only work if you do not have any pure-iPv6 device on the local network. If you do have such a device, you will need to allow iPv6 at least on the one network adapter on which it communicates.

10
  • This answer tells how to completely disable IPv6. It does not tell how to disable only the tunnelling network adapters. In an environment with IPv6 connectivity you'd want to leave IPv6 enabled, but probably disable the tunneling adapters.
    – Dan Pritts
    Nov 22, 2015 at 19:36
  • @DanPritts: IPv6 in local networks is very rarely or never an issue, and almost no computer is nowadays directly connected to the Internet. IPv6 can almost always be dispensed with (except for routers connecting to the Internet), and disabling it is also the solution for several other problems found on this forum.
    – harrymc
    Nov 22, 2015 at 21:25
  • 1
    This isn't true. Lots of universities and government sites use IPv6, and more every day. So disabling IPv6 isn't necessarily the right answer in every case. Regardless, it is not an answer to the question that is posed - which is how to disable the tunnelling adapters. Also, if your local site isn't running ipv6, then your router doesn't have any use for it either.
    – Dan Pritts
    Nov 23, 2015 at 17:34
  • @DanPritts: It is an answer because it solves the problem with the least amount of work, MUCH more economical than the accepted answer. IPv6: ISPs need it, as the Internet is the only world network that is running out of IPv4 addresses. For any internal network, 32 bits for IPv4 addresses are much more than enough. Exposing local IPv6 addresses to the Internet can expose internal network architecture if done with ignorance, so is a security risk.
    – harrymc
    Nov 23, 2015 at 19:20
  • I'm well aware of the reasons for IPv6 and the IPv4 address exhaustion situation. This is why I made a point of commenting here; people ARE starting to use IPv6. Regarding ISPs, it's not much use for your ISP to be using IPv6 if the customers on their network aren't. (The exception is for huge networks which use IPv6 for their own internal management, e.g., comcast). Regardless, i'll stop now; anyone reading this can make their own decision.
    – Dan Pritts
    Nov 23, 2015 at 21:22
7

From the command line:

netsh interface ipv6 6to4 set state state=disabled undoonstop=disabled
netsh interface ipv6 isatap set state state=disabled
netsh interface teredo set state disabled

If you're running Windows 2012/8 or later, you can do it with powershell:

Set-Net6to4configuration -state disabled
Set-Netisatapconfiguration -state disabled
Set-NetTeredoConfiguration -type disabled

Caveat - if for some reason you want the tunnel adapters on some, but not all, of your interfaces, this isn't the right solution. Probably that's not what you want though.

Credit & more information about what these adapters are: http://www.minasi.com/newsletters/nws1303.htm

3
  • Brilliant answer, this is just perfect. Out of curiosity, I wonder about the three different syntaxes for the three disables....
    – pgr
    Apr 6, 2016 at 15:56
  • Yeah, I wonder too. Especially the powershell ones, you'd think they would be consistent.
    – Dan Pritts
    Apr 10, 2016 at 19:52
  • The only thing consistent about Windows commands is their inconsistency!
    – Rob H
    Feb 22, 2017 at 16:20

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