What is the Direct Parallel network driver?

What is the "Direct Parallel" network driver in Windows 2000? Here's the whole story:

My system:
Asus P5A-B mobo
500 MHz AMD K6-2
128 MB Crucial PC100 RAM
6.0 GB Seagate HD, 2 primary partitions, one FAT32 for Win 98, one NTFS for Win 2000.
3Com 3C905B-TX network adapter, connected to cable modem.
Aureal Vortex sound card

When I powered on the system and booted to Windows 2000, I would get a BSOD, error loading raspti.sys driver. If I did a hard reset at this point, the system would boot normally. It seems that this BSOD would occur the first time the system was powered on. After poking around a bit, I found that a hidden device, the "Direct Parallel" network adapter, used the raspti.sys driver. So, like any good troubleshooter, I disabled that sucker to see if I really needed it. So far, so good, but my curiosity is killing me -- WHAT did I disable, and will I see problems in the long run?

"Arte es vida"

I thouhgt at first it was referring to DCC (direct cable connection), but WHY would they suddely change the name? unless of course its just referring to the adapter that windows installed.


Next time you wave - use all your fingers