What is loopback adapter

Collectives on Stack Overflow. Learn more. What is the purpose of the Microsoft Loopback Adapter? Ask Question. Asked 11 years, 10 months ago. Active 1 year, 7 months ago. Viewed 86k times. Improve this question. George Johnston George Johnston Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Toad Toad LawrenceDol The latest Wiresharck version ver. I am using it without any problem. Trevoke Trevoke 4, 1 1 gold badge 24 24 silver badges 47 47 bronze badges.

Does this mean that it would be possible to have an application listening on the loopback adapter for incoming requests, which were sent from the same machine? In essence, would it be possible to proxy traffic on my local machine by having an application listening on the loopback adapter and routing to a real network adapter? It should be possible.

The RJ45 loopback cable will negate the necessity to carry a bulky network hub around. If the data sent out into the loopback plug is identical to the data received from the loopback plug, you can assume that the basic communication functions of the port are working properly.

So the common application of loopback cable is Loopback Test. Fiber loopback cable is often utilized to check whether the transceiver module is working perfectly as designed. As we all know, transceiver module has two ports, a transmitter port and a receiver port. The former one is to send out laser signals and the latter is to receive signals. When performing the loopback test, the fiber loopback cable can be directly plugged into the output and input port of transceiver module respectively the ports at the ends of the connection must be compatible.

Thus, during the testing process, the loopback cable directly routes the laser signal from the transmitter port back to the receiver port. Then we can compare the transmitted pattern with the received pattern to troubleshoot a defective node in the network. Fiber optic loopback testing is the easiest way to ensure that the transceiver works faultlessly. When selecting a suitable fiber loopback for the transceiver, we should consider the connector type, polish type, and cable type.

Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support. You can install the adapter by using a command prompt or by using the Hardware Wizard.

To download and to run the DevCon utility, follow these steps:. Double-click Devcon. A WinZip Self-Extractor dialog box appears. In the Unzip to path box, type the folder where you want to unzip the files, and then click Unzip. Type devcon. You see output that is similar as: Device node created.

As you will see in the next articles, some network parameters are changing frequently so we will need a static network card. Microsoft Loopback Adapter is a dummy network card, no hardware is involved.

It is used as a testing tool for a virtual network environment where network access is not available. Also, you must use the Loopback adapter if there are conflicts with a network adapter or with a network adapter driver. You can bind network clients, protocols, and other network configuration items to the Loopback adapter, and you can install the network adapter driver or network adapter later while retaining the network configuration information. After installation you need to set an IP address to it.