where does network bridge come from

[crabby117]

I've seen on a few customer PC's a Network Bridge appear in the Network Connections area of XP. It's something that wasn't there before, and of course the customer's usually have no idea how they got there. More often than not, they cause the usual Local Area Connection (and any other connection that might also be there, like the 1394 connection) to become bridged and to stop working because the PC no longer grabs an IP. When I "unbridge" the Local Area Connection, the PC grabs an IP and all is well.

I just have no idea where the bridge came from and if it's safe to delete. Thanks in advance.

 

[jimbopalmer]

Win XP is being 'helpful' and trying to make your ethernet and 1394 'firewire' ports act as one network connection.

I have never seen anyone who wanted that, but XP sure does decide to offer it.

In general, you would use the 1394 as a digital camera port, not a network port

I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.

 

[bcastner]

jimbopalmer has answered this question above, but upgrade your XP clients to Service Pack 2. You have to really want a bridge to enable on with this Service Pack.

 

[dawnrayd]

I work for a broadband ISP tech support, and I see this frequently, customers with XP calling up, and their Local Area Connection has been bridged with the firewire connection. They usually aren't even aware what a network bridge is, let alone how to create one. I'm still not sure why XP gets the urge to do this out of the blue.