This is a small utility (driver and GUI configuration tool) for MAC level bridging TCPIP bound network interfaces (based on NDIS-hooking technology for Windows 2000/XP/2003). It can be used, an example, with OpenVPN in its bridging mode, especially with the server-end running on a Windows 2000 machine (which misses native bridging available since Windows XP) or just for bridging wireless and wired Ethernet when IP address space can't be divided into subnets. System requirements:
Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003. How it works:
Basically, Ethernet Bridge is kernel mode WinpkFilter based application, so please refer our premium packet filtering library documentation for the complete details. It implements bridging on the MAC level (below TCP/IP). All functional code works completely in kernel mode, user mode configuration application is responsible only for adding/removing network adapters from the bridge. In order to improve the performance of the solution we have decided to drop the support of the legacy operating systems (Windows 9x/ME and NT 4.0 were supported by Ethernet Bridge 1.14 and below). Starting from Windows 2000 NDIS has an internal mechanism which allows avoiding loopback packets indications and we used it to avoid loopback flood. Download:Ethernet Bridge 2.0 (x86 build)
How to install: Unzip and run the installer. You will have to reboot the system after the installation. How to use:
In order to configure and start bridging you have to run bridge_cfg.exe. After choosing bridged adapters you can shutdown bridge_cfg.exe, having it running is not necessary since the configuration is completed. If you disabled/enabled any network adapters or installed any additional ones without reboot and want to add them to the bridge you may need to run bridge_cfg.exe again.
Something like this is usally seen after bridge_cfg.exe is started for the first time
On the next screenshot Local Area Connection and Local Area Connection are bridged
If you reboot then you have to configure the bridge again, saving settings is not supported. However, if you need to start bridging from the script (running during the system boot, an example) you can use simple command line application bridge_cmd.exe which can be found in the installation directory (\bin). If started without parameters it lists the available Ethernet interfaces with the short information about each. The example of its output is below:
The following Ethernet interfaces are available to MSTCP:
\DEVICE\{7D2E629A-9DDA-4B1A-989A-1931CAB0BB7A} Relates to: Local Area Connection 2 Current MAC: 0050BF9BF8BB Medium: 0x00000000 Current MTU: 1500 Current bridge status = NOT BRIDGED
\DEVICE\{24DED96F-A7E9-4382-9556-F6F0CDCDFDC0} Relates to: Local Area Connection Current MAC: 00508D5F3673 Medium: 0x00000000 Current MTU: 1500 Current bridge status = NOT BRIDGED
In order to bridge the chosen interfaces you have to specify all of them in the command line. The command below turns on bridging for the both interfaces listed above:
In command line you can specify internal network interface names (like “\DEVICE\{24DED96F-A7E9-4382-9556-F6F0CDCDFDC0}”) , local area connection name like it is displayed in Network Connections applet (like “Local Area Connection”) or even name prefixes (in this case bridging will be enabled for all adapters with the specified prefix, an example specifying “\” as parameter will turn on bridging for all available network interfaces). Using bridge_cmd you can turn on bridging automatically during the system boot, an example, using SrvAny or any similar tool. Disclaimer:
Ethernet Bridge is supplied AS-IS, without warranties of any kind. Since it includes a kernel-mode component, there is always the possibility that program bugs may damage your system. Price & licensing:
