Group Policy for Network Bridge

Prohibit installation, configuration, and use of the Network Bridge on your DNS domain network determines whether computer users with administrative privileges can enable Network Bridge on your DNS domain network.

The Network Bridge lets computer administrators create a bridge across two or more network connections to allow network traffic to flow across all network connections that are included in the bridge as if all were part of the same network subnet. For more information about the Network Bridge, see Network Bridge overview.Group Policy settings define the various components of the user's desktop environment that a system administrator needs to manage. For more information about Group Policy, see Group Policy overview.

Important

The Network Bridge menu command Bridge Connections is only available when two or more network adapters are present. By default, the Network Bridge is disabled, but administrators can use the menu on network connection icons to enable it. If you enable the Prohibit installation, configuration, and use of Network Bridge on your DNS domain network setting to prohibit the use of Network Bridge on your domain network, Network Bridge cannot be created because the Bridge Connections command is removed from the menu on network connection icons. Computer users with limited privileges are prohibited from configuring the Network Bridge, regardless of this setting.

If the Network Bridge already exists on a computer on your network before the policy is enabled, then the bridge will continue to exist because this setting is location aware. It only applies when a computer is connected to the same DNS domain network that it was connected to when the setting was last refreshed. If a computer, such as a laptop computer, is connected to your DNS domain network, but the setting on the computer was last refreshed on another network, then the setting on your network will not apply to that computer.