Is a Windows Network Bridge IP-address aware?

Question

The question is pretty self-explanatory really, does the windows networking bridge maintain a list of IP addresses in order to assist in forwarding packets to the correct port?

I only ask this because the bridge appears to change the MAC source address of packets that go through it, so I can only theorise that the bridge must remember the original MAC address with the IP address, so it can change the MAC address back when the response arrives at the bridge.

On a side note, there is little or no technical documentation on the behaviour or configuration of the windows network bridge, anyone know where I can find some?

Cheers

Answer 1

MAC addresses are only meaningful on the local collision domain: i.e. through hubs and switches but not routers (including gateways). If Windows is bridging it is acting as a router.

Run route print from a command (or, better, PowerShell) prompt to see the routing rules that Windows uses. There are all based on IP address.