Guest theeldergeek Posted February 27, 2010 Posted February 27, 2010 Can someone explain, in idiot speak, what bridging is? We have a server which has 2 NIC's in it. These have been 'bridged'. Why would this be done, and what benefits does it bring? Does it increase speed of the network when all clients are on the same subnet, i.e. 10.22.*.* ? Please be gentle, I know jack about Windows 2003 Server. ..
Chillibear Posted February 27, 2010 Posted February 27, 2010 (edited) I'm not too familiar with Win2k3 servers, but it's worth noting that bridging in many network cases concerns connecting two different network segments together at the data layer, ie it does it routing based on MAC addresses rather than IP addresses. Often bridges are physical devices like switches and hubs, but it's possible to use a computer to do bridging. The wikipedia article is quite good: Bridging (networking) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and I probably can't do a better explanation Edited February 27, 2010 by Chillibear tidy up
sparkeh Posted February 27, 2010 Posted February 27, 2010 This Technet article explains it pretty well
mattx Posted February 27, 2010 Posted February 27, 2010 I used to work on a Token Ring network which was bridged - to start with it used Netbeui as the protocol.......which was a nightmare. [ non-routable ] - things got a bit easier when we moved to IP but then found out that Windows95 had real problems with Netbeui over bridges [ unless you installed the latest Winsock ] - NT4 had a similar problems until Fixpack 6. I bet most of the young ones on here have never heard of Netbeui thinking about it. Banyan Vines anyone ?
tmcd35 Posted February 27, 2010 Posted February 27, 2010 Banyan Vines anyone ? I was doing alright upto this point! Thankfully Wikipedia is my friend [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banyan_VINES]Banyan VINES - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame] @Sparkeh - the diagrams in that technet article explain bridging very well.
cookie_monster Posted February 27, 2010 Posted February 27, 2010 I used to work on a Token Ring network which was bridged - to start with it used Netbeui as the protocol.......which was a nightmare. [ non-routable ] - things got a bit easier when we moved to IP but then found out that Windows95 had real problems with Netbeui over bridges [ unless you installed the latest Winsock ] - NT4 had a similar problems until Fixpack 6. I bet most of the young ones on here have never heard of Netbeui thinking about it. Banyan Vines anyone ? Ahh Netbeui I have fond memories, no real configuration and pretty damn fast it really didn't scale very well though, more chatty than Alan Carr As for Token Ring the council still use it. It's getting to be a pain apparently.
tmcd35 Posted February 27, 2010 Posted February 27, 2010 Ahh Netbeui I have fond memories, Fond memories? Really?
mac_shinobi Posted February 27, 2010 Posted February 27, 2010 i re call net bui when I was doing peer to peer between my laptop and desktop computers at home using a cross over cable ( think windows 2000 and windows xp at the time )
Guest theeldergeek Posted February 27, 2010 Posted February 27, 2010 i re call net bui when I was doing peer to peer between my laptop and desktop computers at home using a cross over cable ( think windows 2000 and windows xp at the time ) I recall doing something with NetBEUI on a couple of Win98 PC's sometime back in the late 90's, trying to get Command & Conquer working or something like that! Sadly my IT career went off in a different direction to servers & networks so here I am a dozen or so years later still trying to work it all out!
Guest theeldergeek Posted February 27, 2010 Posted February 27, 2010 This Technet article explains it pretty well Have to say, I'd already read that, and whilst it sort of made some sense, it still didn't leave me with a very clear idea of what was what. I do have a head of fluff today though, makings of a migraine I fear, so probably not absorbing much today. Thanks anyway.
dhicks Posted February 27, 2010 Posted February 27, 2010 Can someone explain, in idiot speak, what bridging is? Like wot a switch does, except in software rather than a dedicated bit of hardware. -- David Hicks 1
tmcd35 Posted February 27, 2010 Posted February 27, 2010 Like wot a switch does, except in software rather than a dedicated bit of hardware. -- David Hicks +1 rep. Direct, to the point, and way over simplified
srochford Posted February 28, 2010 Posted February 28, 2010 I bet most of the young ones on here have never heard of Netbeui thinking about it. Banyan Vines anyone ? Not being young, I remember all of this stuff :-) Am I dreaming, or did RM (possibly still RML in those days!) do a product called Smartbridge for bridging Netbeui.
mattx Posted February 28, 2010 Posted February 28, 2010 Not being young, I remember all of this stuff :-) Am I dreaming, or did RM (possibly still RML in those days!) do a product called Smartbridge for bridging Netbeui. Why are you in the old farts group then ? I miss the old days......coax, bridges, DOS LAN, manually setting jumper switches etc. These days everything is point and click.............BORING.
srochford Posted February 28, 2010 Posted February 28, 2010 Not even point and click for some of it! We've gone from setting ports and IRQs with jumpers on network cards to doing it point and click to having it all done for us. Not long now before the computers take over and we can all be disposed of :-)
mattx Posted February 28, 2010 Posted February 28, 2010 Not even point and click for some of it! We've gone from setting ports and IRQs with jumpers on network cards to doing it point and click to having it all done for us. Not long now before the computers take over and we can all be disposed of :-) Does that mean we can retire ? Forever ?
cookie_monster Posted February 28, 2010 Posted February 28, 2010 Why are you in the old farts group then ? I miss the old days......coax, bridges, DOS LAN, manually setting jumper switches etc. These days everything is point and click.............BORING. Clamping on a 10Base-T transceiver
mattx Posted February 28, 2010 Posted February 28, 2010 Clamping on a 10Base-T transceiver Don't laugh, I still got a few of those hanging around in my: ' The may come in handy one day ' box......
localzuk Posted February 28, 2010 Posted February 28, 2010 Hey, just because you've turned this into the 'thread that time forgot' (i'm pondering calling for a nurse to shuffle you all back to your beds), doesn't mean us youngsters don't know of the old stuff. I remember the fun of setting up a 10base2 network, using IPX/SPX network in order to play various games. I remember how great it was when someone donated a switch to us, and allowed us to upgrade. Great fun! I particularly loved the crazy innards of IBM 386 machines. 1
m25man Posted February 28, 2010 Posted February 28, 2010 Can someone explain, in idiot speak, what bridging is? We have a server which has 2 NIC's in it. These have been 'bridged'. Why would this be done, and what benefits does it bring? Does it increase speed of the network when all clients are on the same subnet, i.e. 10.22.*.* ? Please be gentle, I know jack about Windows 2003 Server. .. If you have two NIC's they can be configured as either Link Aggregated (Trunked) for additional through put or bridged (Passthrough). Bridging NICs on servers is not something I would recommend unless you know what you are doing and have a specific reason for doing so. If you have two ports in your server and they are "Bridged" you have in effect created a switch. Unless you have correctly configured your "Bridge" and connected them to the same switch you now have a Loop between your switch ports or switches and have just created a potential nightmare for yourself unless you have everything correctly setup with STP etc.... Bridging can be used to connect two seperate network segments together to make a single contiguous subnet as opposed to routing between different subnets. I commonly use bridging on the laptop using 2 NICS with the Laptop in between to stage MITM attacks. You can use two NICs bridged and just drop your self inline between your source and target or use a Wifi adapter and 3G modem bridged to create a spoofed Wifi hotspot ...... But that of course is very naughty and you shouldn't do that unless it was on your own network or with the approval of the owner of course
mattx Posted February 28, 2010 Posted February 28, 2010 You can use two NICs bridged and just drop your self inline between your source and target or use a Wifi adapter and 3G modem bridged to create a spoofed Wifi hotspot ...... But that of course is very naughty and you shouldn't do that unless it was on your own network or with the approval of the owner of course Never done that, but it sounds like something to do on a Rainy Sunday.....
m25man Posted February 28, 2010 Posted February 28, 2010 Never done that, but it sounds like something to do on a Rainy Sunday..... "Welcome to the dark side of the force Matt...."
cookie_monster Posted February 28, 2010 Posted February 28, 2010 Hey, just because you've turned this into the 'thread that time forgot' (i'm pondering calling for a nurse to shuffle you all back to your beds), doesn't mean us youngsters don't know of the old stuff. I remember the fun of setting up a 10base2 network, using IPX/SPX network in order to play various games. I remember how great it was when someone donated a switch to us, and allowed us to upgrade. Great fun! I particularly loved the crazy innards of IBM 386 machines. Oh yeh I love opening up the old PC's that we have in the IT museum, cards rising like skyscrapers all over the place Apologies for hijacking your thread theeldergeek
mattx Posted February 28, 2010 Posted February 28, 2010 "Welcome to the dark side of the force Matt...." Well it certainly sounds more interesting than using Aircrack to find the keys to my neighbor's access points....
glennda Posted February 28, 2010 Posted February 28, 2010 I used to work on a Token Ring network which was bridged - to start with it used Netbeui as the protocol.......which was a nightmare. [ non-routable ] - things got a bit easier when we moved to IP but then found out that Windows95 had real problems with Netbeui over bridges [ unless you installed the latest Winsock ] - NT4 had a similar problems until Fixpack 6. I bet most of the young ones on here have never heard of Netbeui thinking about it. Banyan Vines anyone ? had never heard of netbeui but i was only 4 when you speak of this windows 95 thing! @dhicks great answer!
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