Bridging windows xp

By: Kaushik Pal Contributor. By: Leah Zitter Contributor. Dictionary Dictionary Term of the Day. Decentralized Finance. Techopedia Terms. Connect with us. Sign up. Term of the Day. Best of Techopedia weekly. News and Special Offers occasional. Windows XP Network Bridge. When a loop is formed, bridges forward traffic indefinitely. This causes unnecessary traffic that slows down network performance.

The STA creates a logical tree topology so that there will be only one path between any two segments. If a bridge fails, however, the algorithm allows the network to automatically reconfigure the topology for fault tolerance.

The STA also ensures that the data will take the most efficient path. Bridges communicate with each other about the network topology via STA packets, with each bridge identifying itself by its lowest-numbered MAC address remember that a bridge has at least two network interfaces. The bridge with the lowest identification number is called the root bridge. For more information about the STA, click here.

Tip Note that it is possible for you to disable the STA by editing the registry. For instructions on how to do so, see "Manage Network Bridge Feature. Configuring bridged connections XP makes it easy to configure bridged connections. If you have multiple network adapters installed for example, an Ethernet 10BaseT card and an Note that this option will not appear if your XP computer belongs to a domain. In fact, the default is to bridge connections, which causes bridges to be created inadvertently.

Tip You might have multiple adapters installed because you have a NIC that connects to a broadband Internet connection device, such as a DSL or cable modem. These adapters cannot be bridged. Creating the bridge To create a bridge, you must have two eligible connections.

Open the Network Connections applet from Control Panel and highlight the connections you want to bridge by using [Ctrl] and clicking to select each. Right-click and select Bridge Connections from the context menu, as shown in Figure A. Figure A Select two connections you want to bridge, right-click, and choose Bridge Connections. Figure B After you create the bridge, a new icon will appear in your Network Connections.

Figure C The properties for the bridged connections are now configured as part of the bridge. Disconnect Additional Connections temporary To disconnect your wired Ethernet connection, unplug your Ethernet cable from its jack.

To disconnect your wireless connection: Windows 7 On the Windows taskbar bottom, right , right-click the connection icon and select Disconnect from [connection name] Windows Vista On the Windows taskbar bottom, right , right-click the connection icon and select Disconnect from [connection name] Windows XP On the Windows taskbar bottom, right , right-click the Wireless Network Connection icon and select Disable.

Completely Disable Unused Connections This will keep your operating system from using the disabled connection until you re-enable it. In the left-hand column, click Change adapter settings. A new screen will open with a list of network connections. In the left-hand column, click Manage network connections. A new window will open. If the lock on the lower left corner of the Network window is closed, click it so you can make changes to the network settings do not click the lock if it is already "open" , then enter your system password when prompted.

Step 2: Make Sure Network Bridging is Disabled If your laptop has more than one network adapter or card, you may have to disable network bridging, otherwise known as Internet connection sharing. If there is a network bridge listed among the connections, right-click it and select Delete to remove it.

The Sharing window will open. If the lock on the lower left corner of the Sharing window is closed, click it so you can make changes to the network settings do not click the lock if it is already "open" , then enter your system password when prompted.