Windows – Any way to make a virtual bridged network adapter in windows? Like VMware has

bridgenetworkingvirtualizationwindows

is there any way to make a virtual network adapter in windows (that has its own mac address, and lets me bridge it to another connection? So in the end, it'll be like another physical connection that's connected to its own internet.)

I noticed VMware connects its virtual OS to the internet by creating a virtual adapter and bridging it to a physical adapter. It has its own mac address.

I found something called a Microsoft Loopback Adapter, but I dont think thats it, is it? I want to be able to bridge it, and have programs bind to that specific adapter, but have it still have its own virtual mac address.

-Thanks

//crossposted from social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itpronetworking/thread/6077c9d6-5562-43be-874f-0f4ebea3a45e (I'm not the original author)

Best Answer

You can get a virtual network interface for Windows similar to the one VMware has by installing the TAP interface used by OpenVPN.

Download it from here: http://openvpn.net/index.php/open-source/downloads.html (scroll down to the section "Tap-windows"). After installation you will see an additional interface similar to this:

enter image description here

(Image credit: http://www.openmaniak.com/openvpn_bridging.php)

This document http://openvpn.net/index.php/open-source/documentation/miscellaneous/76-ethernet-bridging.html explains what Ethernet bridging using a TAP interface is all about:

Ethernet bridging essentially involves combining an ethernet interface with one or more virtual TAP interfaces and bridging them together under the umbrella of a single bridge interface. Ethernet bridges represent the software analog to a physical ethernet switch. The ethernet bridge can be thought of as a kind of software switch which can be used to connect multiple ethernet interfaces (either physical or virtual) on a single machine while sharing a single IP subnet.

and describes how to set up bridging using such an interface.

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