Re: Bridging network interfaces on Windows 2000 Prof.

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From: Phillip Windell (_at_.)
Date: 07/08/04 

Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 17:14:58 -0500

"." <.@.> wrote in message
news:cckfcf$i6l$1@nsnmpen2-gest.nuria.telefonica-data.net...
> The main reason why i need bridging is that i want to join two remote
> networks that are numbered in the very same way. Although there's no
> dupe IPs.

Ok, I see. But remeber that VPN by nature has two subnets at a minimum and
usually three or more. Remeber that the "Tunnel" itself represents one
subnet in addition to the traffic that actually runs inside the tunnel.
Normally it has 3 subnets because there is one subnet (typically Public) to
create the Tunnel and then there are two (or more) Private subnets that
communicate together through the tunnel.

> By bridging those interfaces i can have the same IP address on the
> virtual link and the ethernet card, which is very convenient in this
> case, as i want to support eventual road-warriors which are normally
> physically plugged on the remote network.

Ok.

> Anyway, i've researched far enough, and i can state W2K simply won't
> bridge.

XP and Server2003 have "bridging" features but I don't know what kind of
hardware it really takes to run it properly. Personally all I ever see are
questions asked in these groups where people either can't get it to work or
are misusing it because they don't understand how networking even works.

With Server 2000 I don't know of a way to do it since the VPN interface is
"virutal" and not physical. With Win2000 and older bridging had to be done
with special physical NICs designed for this using software from the NIC
Vendor to perform that task.

We have the same situation here where our main building (the TV Station) is
joined to the State Capitol Building with a 56k Line that is bridged rather
than routed because it is the same subnet on each side. It is done buy a
couple of small appliances that are essentially a light-weight router setup
to run as a "bridge". They are Ascend Pipeline-130's,... eventually "bought
out" by Lucent Technologies. I don't know if they are even available
anymore. There is no VPN involved at all in what we are doing with it.

Perhaps you could do this with a pair of "low-end" routers set to function
as "bridges". Maybe a pair of old Cisco 2501's you could pickup cheap on
E-Bay? 

-- 
Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
www.wandtv.com

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