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calccrypto 0 Light Poster

i have a home computer, so why do i have 2 local area connections? ive never had 2 until a few hours ago, when i reformated. ive always only had 1. i have already tried to disable the second on but it wont let me, and if i disable the first one, my internet goes down.

also, for some reason, when i uninstalled my vga drivers which were messing up, the second one disappeared.

anyone know why? did i get hacked in the time between reformatting and installing my virus scanner?

Edited by calccrypto because: n/a
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Dani AI

Generated

noted two "Local Area Connection" entries after a reformat, and that the extra entry went away after uninstalling a VGA driver. That sequence strongly points to a driver or virtual adapter creating a second logical network interface (virtual NIC, USB-dock/display driver, VPN/virtualization stack or leftover device entry), rather than an immediate network breach.

To identify and remove the extra entry without guessing which device it maps to, gather adapter details and map them together. Running the following will show which interfaces exist and their MACs/IDs:

ipconfig /all
getmac /v /fo list
netsh interface show interface
netstat -ano

Network Connections (Win+R, ncpa.cpl) -> right‑click each connection -> Status -> Details shows the Physical Address; Device Manager (View -> Show hidden devices) -> Network adapters lists driver names. Matching the MAC/driver info pinpoints which adapter is real and which is virtual/ghost. If the Disable button in Connections is ineffective, disable or uninstall the unwanted adapter from Device Manager (not the healthy NIC). Ghost entries can also be removed by uninstalling the driver and rebooting.

Notes and cautions: the fact that removing a display-related driver removed the extra connection is a useful diagnostic clue. Virtual adapters bundled with non-network drivers are common. Registry edits under the network class can clean persistent names but require care. A full antivirus scan and inspection of active connections (netstat) are prudent if there is lingering concern about compromise.

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