HOWTO originally posted by kwiggins on hacki's forum and adapted for GNS3.

The answer to the problem is a little known feature in Windows XP of all places. All that’s needed is a bridge for the bridge, and you are on your way to communicating through GNS3 to the real world all the while you are soaking up some sun outside in the “real world.”

These are the steps to follow to be able to bridge GNS3 to the real world using your wireless adapter.

STEP 1

Set up a Loopback adapter on your PC. There are many tutorials throughout this site that tell how to do this. Blindhog.net has an excellent video on how to setup a Loopback adapter. - http://www.blindhog.net/cisco-dynamips- ... -tutorial/

STEP 2

The next phase is to bridge the Loopback adapter with your wireless adapter. This is the key to making it all work.

a. Open your Network Connections
b. Use the <Ctrl> to select both the Loopback adapter you just created and your wireless adapter.
c. Right Click and the select Bridge Connections. Windows will then set up a new adapter called Network Bridge (MAC Bridge Miniport). All of the IP settings for your wireless adapter will now show up under the Network Bridge.
d. Once Windows has finished doing its thing, you are ready to connect to the real world using the wireless adapter.

STEP 3

At this point follow the instructions in the GNS3 documentation on Communicating with Real Networks. When you have the option to choose your network adapter, choose the Loopback adapter you created. Be sure to give the interface on the router that connects to your cloud an IP address that is on the same subnet as your wireless network.

That's it. You should now be able to connect from your emulated router to the real world using your wireless adapter.

You can also use this method to capture traffic that goes across the wireless adapter using Wireshark. To do so, just select the MAC Bridge as the interface to monitor.

For more detailed information on bridging using Windows XP, see the link below to WindowsNetworking.com

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articl ... brdge.html

Hopefully this will help someone "cut the cord," and use their PC the way it was intended, without wires.

this procedure did not work. can you please submit detailed explanations. i am trying to connect my virtual router on GNS3 to real network.

I have used this procedure many times and it works well for me. Can you specify your problem?

Hello,
My problem is on the second stage. When I try to bridge the Wireless Connection with the Loopback interface, they did form a bridge with 3 new icons. But the wireless connection doesn't work anymore which means I can connect outside.
First I thought it was because I set the IP on the interface, then I tried DHCP and it still doesn't work. Thank you!


Will

Hey there. I have the EXACT same problem. it just dawned on me to see what happens when I bridge my RJ45 cabled connection. It worked like a charm. But when I followed the above instructions, the wireless stays disabled until i unbridge it. Any suggestions? Thanks!!!

I had the same problem bridging my wireless nic to my loopback. What was causing the issue for me was MAC security on my router. The bridge is created under a new MAC and the router would not let it associate. as soon as i plugged in the MAC of the bridge to my router the bridge came up fine.

-Joe

HELP !!!!!!!
I have trying to setup some Lab on the GNS 3 which is attached.

On Laptop A, I installed GNS 3 with one router and 2 cloud. I created 2 MS loopback interface on laptop A. Loopback 1 and Wireless adaptors are bridge together and assigned ip address 192.168.1.104/25 with default gateway 192.168.1.5.
GNS 3 Cloud 1 is connected to bridged MS loopback 1. Router interface fa0/0 is connected to Cloud 1 and ip address assigned to 192.168.1.5/24.
MS loopback 2 is assigned to 10.10.10.5/24. Cloud 2 is connected to MS loopback adaptor. And router interface fa 0/1 is connected to Cloud2. Router interface fa0/1 is assigned to 10.10.10.1/24.
Laptop B is Wireless adaptor is configured with 192.168.1.103/24 and GW 192.168.1.5.
Now I can ping from Laptop B to router interface 192.168.1.5. But I cannot ping to 10.10.10.1 ( interface is up ). Since My Laptop B default Gateway is 192.168.1.5 and network 10.10.10.0/24 is a connected network for the router , I suppose, it should reach 10.10.10.1. But I am not sure where I am making mistake.
Please help me …………….
Basically I am trying to setup GNS 3 on both laptop and want to connect both by the Laptop wireless adaptors. I believe it should be possible.
Thanks in advance.

Hm... I just finished writing a blog about this with step by step instruction.
In my case I am using Wireless NIC. And my OS is Windows 7.

http://xblain.blogspot.com/2010/02/conn ... part1.html

I appreciate everyone's contributions.

I am having trouble with setting up a Wireless connection to the GNS3 application. Here are some notes I compiled from attempting this...

a. Need to make sure Firewall is disabled on any network interfaces specific to this configuration
b. Attempts at connecting via wired Ethernet appear to work, wireless definitely does not.
c. VMWare interfaces all work nicely. No problems there.
d. Not to difficult to determine network connection "names" via pcap.
e. Bridges will not accept members that are currently using ICS (internet connection sharing)
e1. Running the wireless connection in ICS-only mode fails also with GNS3
e2. Disabling ICS, and using both Loopback and Wireless to a Bridge interface fail as well.

Using Windows XP, in the e2. environment, The Wireless and Bridge interfaces DO get a DHCP address and pass traffic, the Loopback DOES NOT and further only "Sends" traffic- never recieves.

Anyone have any ideas????????

Found EVERYTHING I need in the link Jeremy referenced.

http://7200emu.hacki.at/viewtopic.php?p ... ght=#21774


Here's my new working details.... (note; READ the WHOLE thread before you start trying to configure)



Per one of the posters suggestions, I did the following:


>netsh interface show adapter

then do, >netsh bridge set adapter 1 e, and >netsh bridge set adapter 2 e (1 for each ID)

Then do >netsh interface show adapter


----------------------------------------------------------------------
ID AdapterFriendlyName ForceCompatibilityMode
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Loopback Adapter enabled
2 Wireless Network Connection enabled
----------------------------------------------------------------------




--------------------------------------------------------

>netsh interface ip show config Loopback

Error obtaining configuration for interface Loopback.

Note: Loopback shows "send-only", 10mbps, connected

--------------------------------------------------------

>netsh interface ip show config Wireless

Configuration for interface "Wireless"
DHCP enabled: Yes
InterfaceMetric: 0
DNS servers configured through DHCP: None
WINS servers configured through DHCP: None
Register with which suffix: Primary only

Note: Wireless shows connected, 54mbps send and receive.

--------------------------------------------------------

>netsh interface ip show config Network

Configuration for interface "Network"
DHCP enabled: Yes
InterfaceMetric: 0
DNS servers configured through DHCP: 172.20.16.51
172.20.16.52
WINS servers configured through DHCP: None
Register with which suffix: Primary only

Note: Bridge shows "send and recieve", 300mbps, connected





Router is configured as....

!
!
!
interface FastEthernet0/0
ip address dhcp
speed 100
full-duplex
!
interface Serial0/0
no ip address
shutdown
clock rate 2000000
!
interface FastEthernet0/1
no ip address
shutdown
duplex auto
speed auto
!
!
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 FastEthernet0/0
!
!


I can ping to the outside, ping from the LAN to the router and send domain queries back and forth. Need to be sure to NOT advertise network protocols to the "real" network.