Abstract: A network controller system including a plurality of network ports and a driver system that operates the network ports as a team. The team is operated to simulate a single logical device in one of several team modes, such as fault tolerance or load balancing modes, to enhance performance of communication of the computer in a network. The driver system periodically determines and updates the status of each of the network ports, where the status of each is based at least on whether at least one directed packet has been received and transferred to the driver system by a respective network port. If any one of the network ports has not received a directed packet within a predetermined time period, the driver system commands another network port to transmit a directed heartbeat packet to the network port that has not received a directed packet. The team may include a primary and one or more secondary ports.