most of my newer servers (2012 and 2012 R2) have the "Network Connections" service set to "Manual". I am assuming this is the default, since I never changed it. The "Windows Server 2003-2012 Services and Counters" will throw an error if this service isn't started.
I tried searching for what this service really does, and all I get is the same verbiage that appears as the description for the service itself.
Honestly, the server seems to be working fine without it, but I usually enable it just to turn the icon green in SAM...
If this is a critical service, why is it set to Manual by default? If it's not, why is it monitored seemingly as a critical service by SAM?