Howard Lowndes wrote:
I have been doing some reading on Linux ethernet bridging - brctl and
ebtables - and I can see how it could be used covertly on a network.
What I would be interested to know is any examples where it has
legitimate use on a fully owned and managed network that could not be
achieved by other means.
One that springs to mind is to extend a link beyond the 100m limit,
but that could be done by using an off the shelf switch. Are there
others.
I would be interested in hearing of any examples that you are able to
disclose...
In the beginnig, the network bridge (Bridge) was invented to join two or
more networks as one.
Then Cisco invented the Router, and the Bridge dropped in popularity
because Routers are
easier to implement and manage.
Then with many Routers on the network performance dropped due to latency
caused by routing
and many network engineers realised that they needed the bridge to
minimize latency. So, again
they invented the Switch which is really a Bridge with lots of network
interfaces.
Bridges work on layer-two whilst routers work on layer-three. In this
view, it is deemed to be
less risky and network engineers again made bridges that worked in
cooperation with firewalls
and came up with the term transparent bridging.
There are other ideas around bridges but from these you can figure out
that you can do
lots of things with bridges in combination with other technologies,
including those things
that nobody has yet figured out.
I hope this is helpful.
O Plameras
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