what exactly does it do, ive read a little on it, but still am not sure. does this mean i can take the computers online connection, and its network connection (to computers that have no internet capability) and bridge them so that all of the computers have interenet capabality if i set the computer with the bridged connection as the uplink??? im a little confused as to the use of bridging connections. any information would be greately appreciated.

Bridging is taking two seperate physical networks, and allowing them to become one "logical" network. You can't use it to give other computers internet connections, but you could use it to join two LANs together without having to do routing.

You, of course, accomplish this via a bridge. This device usually has two or more NICs. You would plug each network segment into the bridge. Then, automagically, all of the machines on the 2 networks can ping one another, assuming they're all using the same logical subnet (ie, all of them are in the same IP address range).

If you wanted to give more than one machine an Internet connection, you'd need to use routing. In Windows, the feature would be called Internet Connection Sharing. Under Linux or any other OS, it's called IP Masquerading, or Network Address Translation. It will allow you to use one machine to act as a gateway for the rest of the machines in your network to have Internet access.

So, for connecting your network to the Internet, you'd need a router. For connecting your network to another network and use the same IP addressing scheme, you could use a bridge.

wow, thanks that really helped out. ok, now i have a new question.

ok lets say i have this setup.

COMPUTER.

A B C D and they all have internet alright. now lets say computer A is on another net work with computers E and F and E and F dont have internet connection. now if i do internet connection sharing (as i have tested) E and F both gain internet access. but what about B C D, does that mean their internet is now running off of A? or are they still using the internet as usual. And if their internet is now shared with computer A is there a way to limit it to only E and F so that B C and D are still using their regular connection? any help would be greatly appreciated.

Okay... lemme get this straight:

One network has

A B C D

The other network has
A E F

A is on two networks? Who's the gateway for the first network? If A is connected to the network E and F is on, A could be used for an Internet gateway. A probably wouldn't be the gateway for B, C, and D, though.

Is this about right?

Yup A is on two networks. its on our main Network between all of the computers in the house (a wireless nic card) and a network between 2 other computers ( the onboard nic ). so yeah you have it right.




thats how it looks. E and F have no internet, but when i enable internet sharing on A E and F can connect (well not F anymore since i put linux on it, but im working on that part).

Now when i enable network connection sharing, does it only share its connection with computers that have no internet connection?? or does it share it with all? i need to know this and if it does share it with all computers that are on the network, is there a way that i can limit the sharing to only the computers E and F. thank you for any help that you may be able to offer .

does bridging improve the speed for internet

For egs : i have internet service that has a router and when the router is disconnected i get good speed but with the router the internet is slow . I was advised to bridge the connection