confused by the multitude of Internet connections in OS X!

[kdum8]

See the screen capture of the networks on my mac below from system preferences:

Can someone help me identify where all these networks came from and what they could be? If you see in the screen capture of the network tab of system preferences, I have four different ethernet connections? I am on a LAN but why would that require three different connections to be active (the ones in green). What are they all there for? I am just curious to learn really, there is no problem as such. I am just confused as to why I have so many connections that I don't seem to use. When I am at home I use the airport only. Can I just delete the others?

 

[spinnerlys]

Those are network connections, thus they might be important, especially the ones with the green dot in front of them.

Why do you want to delete them anyway, they don't take up much storage space or slow down your computer?

The Huawe connection belongs to an UMTS stick, the Parallels connection are essential for Parallels and Firewire and Bluetooth can be used for network connections too.

 

[kdum8]

Those are network connections, thus they might be important, especially the ones with the green dot in front of them.

Why do you want to delete them anyway, they don't take up much storage space or slow down your computer?

The Huawe connection belongs to an UMTS stick, the Parallels connection are essential for Parallels and Firewire and Bluetooth can be used for network connections too.

Thanks for your fast reply. I don't want to delete them as such, I just wanted to know whether they were necessary on my system. I will leave them. Thanks for giving me an idea what each of them do though. Is there any reason why being connected to an ethernet LAN would require three connections as it is at the moment? Is that normal?

 

[spinnerlys]

I only see two Ethernet connections, the active one on top of the list and the inactive one on the bottom of the list, though the full name is partially hidden.

The three active connections are your Ethernet connection to your router or network, the first Parallels connection is for file transfer between VM and Mac OS X, the second Parallels connection is for using the www or any other internet service via the VM in Parallels.

 

[kdum8]

I only see two Ethernet connections, the active one on top of the list and the inactive one on the bottom of the list, though the full name is partially hidden.

The three active connections are your Ethernet connection to your router or network, the first Parallels connection is for file transfer between VM and Mac OS X, the second Parallels connection is for using the www or any other internet service via the VM in Parallels.

Thanks! You are right. OK now that makes sense. I didn't realise that Parallels needed its own connections. Thank you for your help.