Skip to main content
Unix & Linux

You are not logged in. Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.

We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because community members review edits, please try to make the post substantially better than how you found it, for example, by fixing grammar or adding additional resources and hyperlinks.

5
  • 5
    "Because a bridge is an ethernet device it needs a MAC address." Why? The devices connected to the bridges do have MAC addresses. But I don't think the bridge itself need one. As for the rest of the answer, does that means that the bridge interface act as an additional "port" on the bridge which allows other ports to access the host machine? Commented Oct 31, 2016 at 2:29
  • The bridge is able to originate Ethernet frames, so it needs an address. Re: the second part of your question...sure. Commented Oct 31, 2016 at 2:55
  • 4
    But is it mandatory that the bridge interface has a MAC address? I mean, a physical switch does not have to have a MAC address to do its job, does it? So I would think that the interface does not require one either. Commented Oct 31, 2016 at 3:32
  • 3
    A simple bridge is effectively a two-port switch, so it does not necessarily need any addresses. A simple bridge does not originate frames, it just receives a frame on one port and either forwards it on the other port, or drops it. Commented Oct 31, 2016 at 7:23
  • 5
    "such that the bridge is your connectivity to the outside world." Why? Why can't the primary NIC be still the connection to the outside world? Real hardware bridges also keep the IP address of the real link partners connected to them. Why not the linux wirtual bridge? Commented Nov 9, 2018 at 12:16