Network Bridge

[winslow]

What is it? Why would I want one? why does windows xp keep putting one in my network folder? What are the ramifications of deleting a bridge automatically configured by windows?

[Beaver]

Should not be created automatically. Network bridge is some sort of Windows software router. By bridging the connections you are allowing the traffic to be transferred between two network interfaces. Example:

My girlfriend's laptop has some problem with wired network connector so she need to connect via WiFi only. As we do not have any WiFi AP at home I solve the problem by making network bridge in Windows using the "Local Area Network Connection" and "Wireless Network Connection". After that it was need to set the default gateway on girlfriend's laptop to the IP address of my computer. So when she needed to connect to Internet, the traffic was going through my PC.