[FW1] NIC problem with WIN2k

[Neo]

Hello all,   I have a question for you guys.  Currently my company is using WinNT, CP FW-1, SP3.  We are migrating to Win2k.  The firewall has 4 NICS, and the CP license is bound to the NIC facing the internet.  My problem is this...Under windows 2000, Win2k does not recognize the NIC as being enabled if the Cable or connection is down (ie. "ipconfig /all = "cable disconnected")..which means that if our link or connection goes down on the NIC that the Firewall is licensed to, Windows will not recognize that NIC.  This means that Checkpoint will not recognize that the firewall has a license and thus not allowing us to control policy for traffic flow thought the other 3 NICS.  It will give you the error, "no license for user interface".    Besides plugging a loopback cable into the NIC if the connection happens to go down, does anybody have any other suggestions on how to make Win2k recognize the IP's of the NICs, even if the cables are disconnected?   Thank you, Aeon