How to integrate a Microsoft Loopback interface with GNS3
Posted by Josh on Fri 11 Jan 2008Categories: Cisco , Dynamips , GNS3 - [80] Comments
In a previous tutorial, I showed you how to use a windows loopback interface to connect to your dynagen/dynamips lab.
This tutorial is the same (in theory). Only this time we are using gns3 instead of dynagen. Before running the gns3 loopback tutorial, you may want to go through the microsoft loopback tutorial first.
January 11th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
you just read my mind, i was trying to figure this out. thank you very much!!
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:23 am
This video is not opening. I have tried severally.Can you check on it.
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:15 am
I checked the video and it is working for me. What do you see when you click ‘Watch the Video’ ?
January 28th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
The vidoe does not work.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
I need more details regarding the video not working. What do you see? Do you get an error message or a blank page? Are you using firefox or IE? Do you have flash installed? If so, what version?
Josh
February 13th, 2008 at 2:11 am
I think the problem is that the video is not starting automatically, and people do not notice that they have to scroll down to see the play button to start the video.
I was first also puzzled why it didn’t play the video, and could not find the play button.
Hugo
February 13th, 2008 at 8:39 am
Hugo,
You are probably right. I will try to get that fixed on the new videos soon.
Josh
February 13th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Thanks for this helpful tutorial. finally solved my problem .
March 8th, 2008 at 8:39 am
Could not get it to work with the loopback. I had to use the physical card on the box.
I have done everything including adding the correct network to the loopback with no luck.
Whats the overall benefit of using the loopback vs the physical card to bridge?
I can telnet to the routers from anywhere on my network using the physical card.
Input is appreciated.
March 8th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
LBS,
Here are a couple other tutorials with practical uses for a loopback interface:
http://www.blindhog.net/cisco-using-dynamips-your-personal-internet-router/
http://www.blindhog.net/cisco-dynamips-virtual-wan-with-ethernet-connection/
Josh
March 11th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
[...] How to integrate a Microsoft Loopback interface with GNS3 [...]
March 12th, 2008 at 7:07 am
Josh ..
Great thanks, but now to determine why it doesn’t work.
Any ideas?
LBS
March 12th, 2008 at 9:00 am
I have the loop back installed on my pc but when I go to dynamips Network Device list. It’s not there, but its on my pc when I go to network connections it has an exclamation point on it. Why am I not seeing it in the network device list ive been trying to get this to work for 2 days now spending hours
March 12th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
rynhadn
You might have to reboot and you must assign an IP to it.
LBS
March 27th, 2008 at 12:41 am
Hi guys,
I have managed to create the loopback and i can ping and telnet from command prompt, but i can ping the loopback interface from the router ? Any idea why since i have point the default gateway to be the router itself…
My question is that i have vmware install and i want to ping these VM host machine which would be on the same segement. Any idea how can we make that possible ?
Any help would be highly appreciated….
March 27th, 2008 at 2:18 am
Veekash,
If I understand what you are trying to do, I would not use the MS Loopback. Instead, use a connection to your actual lan interface. This way, your router should be able to communicate with your LAN as well as your VMWare machines if they are in bridge mode.
Josh
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:13 pm
where I can Find GSN3 initial Configuratio for Wins=dows Xp as I have downloaded the GUI setup of GNS3 from the site and I have tried to configure as per mentioned on this blog http://www.subnettingmadeeasy.blogspot.com/
But I am unable to get the consle of the Router.
The Command screen comes Telnet to Localhost…… and goes away.
Please help me out .. Iam strugling for this…
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Here are my gns3 tutorials…
http://www.blindhog.net/category/gns3/
April 16th, 2008 at 5:11 am
THanks for the tutorial of how to get the MS loopbal working with the GNS3 Lab. I am unable to follow this for a Vista PC? I have the latest 0.4 Beta version of GNS3. Is there something I can do to the Network device list.cmd file to get it to poll my interfaces on a Visa Build? Thanks
May 1st, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Any idia how to save configuration file on GNS3. I am able to save the topology, however, all config is gone.
Thanks
May 9th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Al – if you have 3 0.5, have your routers started, wr your config, then go back to where you built your topology and click on the little yellow arrow pointing to the left. This will save your configs. Hope this helps.
June 17th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Not just a great tutorial, you have organize it so well. I was watching the PEMU video and wondering how to create a loop back in Windows and here I come…. Great job Josh and thanks a lot.
June 20th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Network adapters on this machine:
PCAP: unable to find device list (No interfaces found! Make sure libpcap/WinPcap
is properly installed on the local machine.)
Use as follows:
F0/0 = NIO_gen_eth:\Device\NPF_{…}
Press any key to continue . . .
—————————–
Guyz, can you help me out about this problem of mine? I already installed the winpcap and microsoft loopback, what else do I need to for this Microsoft Loopback interface integration stuff? Many Thanks!
June 21st, 2008 at 3:25 pm
When I try to start GNS3 I get the error message “209-unable to start VM instance” what is happening and how do I translate any error message
June 22nd, 2008 at 7:44 am
hello everyone i have tried to install gns3 on vista interrouter communication is fine but when i install loop back iam not able to execute the networklist.cmd … iam not getting any sort of mac address … is there anything to configure ……. ne ways it teached me to install it on xp.. keep up the good work
June 24th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Jazz, Gerald, Jerome and Rakz,
I am not sure if all of you are using Vista or not…
I do not use Vista, so I can’t speak from experience. However, the posts I have read on forums seem suggest that you need to run GNS3, Dynamips and the ‘Network device list’ shortcut as administrator.
Sorry I don’t have more information. Here is a link that may be helpful: http://www.sadikhov.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=107269
Josh
June 24th, 2008 at 8:53 am
@Kenrick, Thanks!
June 30th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
THANK YOU for the tutorial. It was great except for one thing.
I am running GNS3 0.5. The tutorial says for me to go to EMULATION MODE, but it is not in my version of GNS3.
I added the loopback to the cloud OK. Connected router to cloud with fastethernet. I gave router fa0/0 and ip address on my lan. I gave the loopback an ip on my lan.
Windows firewall is OFF.
I tried the fa0/0 in ‘duplex full’ and ’speed 100′ and also in auto/auto.
I cannot ping the loopback from the router, and I cannot ping the fa0/0 from the pc.
HOWEVER, if I give the fa0/0 the same ip address as the loopback, I get a Windows System Error…IP address conflict. If I give fa0/0 the ip address of another interface on my pc, I do not get that error.
Any ideas?
thanks again….
July 15th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
i tried the way u showed in blindhog to create MS-loopback, but the “Network device list.bat ” just only show this message:
———————————————————–
Network adapters on this machine:
The system cannot find the path specified.
Use as follows:
F0/0 = NIO_gen_eth:\Device\NPF_{…}
Press any key to continue . . .
———————————————————–
so what am i missing here to setup SDM with gns3 ? pls help ………….
July 15th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
@basim007 – What OS are you running? XP or Vista? Also, does the user have administrative rights? You may try right-clicking on the bat file and running as an administrator. – Josh
July 16th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
well i’m running winXP…
July 19th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
God bless you guys!!
really helpful stuff here..
Thanks a Lot !!
Everystep works just GREAT!
September 7th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Hi unable to start my router Error 209 occurs saying Unable to Start VM instance of Router 1 , i went through all the blogs but couldnt find any solution
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:08 pm
sree,
Do a search at http://7200emu.hacki.at. There are lots of posts for ‘Error 209′.
Josh
November 23rd, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Thanks LBS… Was starting to wonder why the loopback adapter didn’t show up in the batch file
Sometimes a reboot does wonders! By the way, great tutorial, Josh!
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Talked to soon… Followed the tutorial step by step but can’t ping between my loopback adapter and the router
And I’m using XP… I’m also connected to the Internet through my wireless adapter. Can this be the cause of my problem?
November 24th, 2008 at 12:20 am
This is my issue. I can ping everythign except the PC I am bridged to. See the picture I attache.
In this order, I pinged:
1. Dynamips Router Interface (192.168.1.99)
2. DSL Router (192.168.1.1)
3. Google (74.125.47.99)
4. FAILED – PC Im bridge to (192.168.1.96)
The PC does not know how to get to the Dynamips interface as you can see by the Wireshark screen print.
http://www.mediafire.com/?ti3zg0gjddd
Any help would be great
November 24th, 2008 at 1:06 am
Nevermind people, I just got it working with the loopback. My PC had a default route for the 192.168.1.0/24 going thru the DSL router (192.168.1.1). I just used a different network for the router and loopback. I used 10.10.10.0/24.
Dynamips Router – 10.10.10.1/24
Loopback – 10.10.10.10/24;
Loopback default gateway – 10.10.10.1
November 25th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
OK! Finally found what was wrong… I was connecting the FastEthernet interface of the router to my 10 Mbps Loopback adapter. A layer 1 problem… How humiliating
Does anyone know if it’s possible to configure the Loopback adapter to a higher bandwidth? Thanks
December 7th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Im problem with bridging XP sp3 with GNS 3 0.5 beta. I have tried all the possible combination published here from disabling the antivirus, firewall re installation of gns3. Can any one tell me which version of gns3 and xp sp? are they using that it worked with thanks.
December 14th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
ribeirovski,
Sorry it took me so long to respond. Glad to see you were able to get it to work. I am not sure you can force higher bandwidth on a loopback adapter.
Is there a particular reason you need more than 10mbps between your virtual router and your PC?
Josh
December 14th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
lc,
Can you check arp tables on the router (router#show arp) and your pc (c:\>arp -a) ?
Also, what IP addresses do you have configured on the devices?
Josh
December 15th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Hi Josh,
First I want to say that I LOVE your tutorials! They have helped me greatly.
I need your help if you don’t mind. I set up the loopback lke you said with no problems. I can ping my virtual fa0/0 interface (10.10.10.1/24) from my PC (loopback: 10.10.10.100/24) and vice versa.
I am having trouble pinnging any other router in my topology, both ways. I am using EIGRP and I can ping the fa0/0 interface from any router, but I can’t ping the 10.10.10.1 loopback. Same thing the other way around. As mentioned above, I can ping my fa0/0 interface since its directly connected to my cloud, but I can’t ping any of my other virtual routers. I know I can reach the 10.10.10.0 network since I can ping the fa0/0 virtual interface.
Here is my topolgy:
R1(s0)–>(s1)R2(s0)—>(s0)R3(fa0/0)—>Cloud
Please help?!?!?
Thank you so much
December 15th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Also Josh,
in regards to the above mentioned note, I have the MS loopback adapter’s default gateway set to 10.10.10.1.
Thanks
December 16th, 2008 at 7:01 am
Josh,
I followed your instructions, and I am able to ping my loopback and the virtual interface it’s connected to (fa0/0) both ways.
My problem, is I can’t ping any of my other routers in my topology and vice versa. I have placed the default gateway of the loopback to the virutal interface it’s connected to. I am running EIGRP and I am able to ping the virtual interface from any router, but pings to the loopback timeout.
Thanks,
Amol
December 16th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Amol,
Your workstation probably has two different default gateways. Remove the default gateway from your loopback interface.
Then, add routes similar to the following for your branches and the ip blocks of the serial links.
c:\>route add 10.10.20.0 mask 255.255.255.0 10.10.10.1
c:\>route add 10.10.30.0 mask 255.255.255.0 10.10.10.1
If this does not work, please post the output of this command ‘netstat -rn’
Josh
December 25th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Hi,
with the tutorial i was able to create a loopback interface on the PC and was able to ping both the router and pix and even able to telnet. But I am not able to ping PC either form router or pix.
Please guide incase i need to make any changes on the system or on the router/firewall.
Regards,
Ravi DN
December 27th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Ravi,
Check the arp tables on the router and pix. Do they seem to be working whenever you initiate comms from the PC?
Josh
January 10th, 2009 at 11:59 am
I m having a problem with Loop back interface
i manage to install loopback in VISTA
after installing it wenti try to configure Cloud in GNS3 its not showing loopback in it i went through all the forums but i couldnt find any thing?
Can some one help me PLZ PLZ
RAV
January 11th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Hey anyone got this working on VISTA?
February 1st, 2009 at 6:25 pm
I have it working in Vista.
Disabling User Account Control in Vista should let you add loopback correctly in GNS3.
In the network settings I have only selected “Client for Microsoft Networks”, “CDP Packet Driver” and “TCP/IP v4″.
Finally in GNS3 i had to delete the router connection to the cloud and add it back in again before the loopback interface worked.
February 12th, 2009 at 12:40 am
can i do this using subinterfaces in the router and subinterfaces in the NIC with more than one network addresses..? pls rply..
thanks
March 2nd, 2009 at 7:04 am
Hi,
i have a question about Routers connected to Cloud.
if 3 routers connected to cloud how do i assign different vlans to different switchport ?
your reply will be highly appreciated.
regards,
Jack
March 5th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Jack,
I guess I do not understand the question…
Josh
March 6th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Josh,
I installed the loopback and the sdm but when i started the sdm the browser could not load the last page. It stopped at the second page.
what is likely to be the problem.
Thanks
March 8th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Hi,
Good Day, basically i was asking about the Loopback interface in the GNS3, after read from the documentation if a router wanna connected to your PC you must configure the Cloud , isn’t it ?
coz, i am doing some switching lab currently i have 3 routers (from GNS3) and 1 physical switch (that means my laptop is physically connected to this switch, i have tested 1 router and 1 loopback interface, cloud. it is working), now then this 3 routers have assigned to different vlans and connected to my switch. but i noticed from the documentation only show us how to connect a router to a loopback interface (that means cloud). my question was asking about how about 3 routers connected to loopback interface and how to assign different vlans ?
thanks.
March 12th, 2009 at 5:09 am
skilly,
I am not sure. I have never installed sdm using gns3.
Josh
March 12th, 2009 at 5:21 am
Jack,
Here are a few tutorials that might help.
http://www.blindhog.net/gns3-how-to-build-a-switching-lab/
http://www.blindhog.net/gns3-switching-lab-part-2-router-on-a-stick/
If you are using linux, this one might help also…
http://www.blindhog.net/linux-bridging-for-gns3-lan-communications/
Josh
June 29th, 2009 at 1:17 am
Hi,
i have installed GNS3 and SDM both and i have create the loopback interface.i am able to ping my loopback interface from my pc. i setup the lab with 1 router and 1 cloud. i have assign ip addresses to router’s f0/0 interface and i connect the cloud and it is showing me connected.but the problem is that when i ping loopback interface from my router’s interface f0/0 it is not pinging. and i am able to ping my router’s f0/0 interface from my PC.
I am unable to connect SDM with my GNS3. so plz help me it is really urgent for me. so pls send my your responce on my mail ID jasperalexa@gmail.com. this will be the great help for me. i am using winXP.
July 18th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Jasper,
Your problem is the Windows firewall, you need to make changes to the windows firewall on your PC to allow pings.
Josh
August 18th, 2009 at 7:52 am
Hi Josh,
First of all thanks for the great inputs & tutorials in this forum.I am working with MS Loopback adapter, and I have a issue here, and I don’t whether I am missing something. Here is my network.
R2(fa0/0-10.10.20.1)->(fa0/1-10.10.20.2)R1(fa0/0-10.10.10.2)->Cloud(MSloop-10.10.10.1).
I am able to ping R1 from my Windows cmd prompt. but not R2. what should I do here?
Thanks,
R. Selvakumar
August 26th, 2009 at 8:22 am
Can somebody please help me on this?
October 2nd, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Hi Josh,
I think the MS loopback issue is not yet answered in this post. Please help.
when i use my wireless lan card, i am able to ping from virtual router to my pc and vice versa. But when i use the ms loopback i can’t ping either way. I tried disabling my wireless card and also firewall but neither helped. I used 172.16.0.1 /16 on router’s f0/0 and 172.16.0.2 /16 on my loopback.
Thanks,
Paul
October 7th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
i need someone that can give me the guideline on how to configure GNS3 on vista and the necessary materials. thanks
October 15th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Issue I’m having:
ISP router f0/0 connected to loopback of machine. 192.168.5.0/24 and can to/from pc 192.168.5.200 and router 192.168.5.1 no problem.
ISP router is direct connected to two additional routers:
ISP s0/0 to Site1Rtr1 s0/0 10.0.0.0 / 30
ISP s0/1 to Site2Rtr1 s/0/0 10.0.0.4 / 30
From both Site1Rtr1 and Site2Rtr2, I can ping 192.168.5.1.
Issue – I cannot ping 192.168.5.200 (PC loopback) from Site1Rtr1 nor Site2Rtr1. However, the PC can ping all the way through to both routers. No ACLs in the routers.
Thoughts and help appreciated.
BTW, this tool is awesome!
November 4th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Thanks Josh, im on a mission and will surely buy you a cup of coffee.
Anything easy once you’ve been taught. LoL. Big ups man.
November 27th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
I had the same problem bridging my wireless nic to my loopback. What was causing the issue for me was MAC security on my router. The bridge is created under a new MAC and the router would not let it associate. as soon as i plugged in the MAC of the bridge to my router the bridge came up fine.
-Joe
December 15th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Hi there!
I did everything like in the tutorial, and i can ping from the pc to the loopback as wel. But the problem is that when I lunch the SDM, I am asked to prompt a SSH username and password, and then a telnet and a username.
I don’t know what to do with this, so what is the problem??
December 18th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
I try to configure the same way but i could not get MS loopback option in GNS3 cloud , i want to update Network device list file, i know my loopback adapter registry value , i don’t know how to write in Network device list file i open with notepad but i don’t know where and what to write, can some one please give me update
December 29th, 2009 at 12:22 am
I wanted to set up a TFTP server on my PC to mess with backing up IOS and configs. I noticed that with the MS Loopback Adapter, I can ping the network I have in GNS3 just fine, but I can’t go in to that router and ping my loopback adapter.
Any reason why, or way to fix that?
Is there an easier way to mess with the tftp stuff?
December 29th, 2009 at 12:56 am
A little more research, and I found out the problem I was having (and I suppose everyone else is having, as well).
Be sure to check your firewall (whether it’s Windows, Norton, etc.). If you are blocking incoming ICMP, then your firewall will stop GNS3 from pinging your loopback.
I ended up having to add an Allow incoming ICMP requests on my Norton firewall, and it worked like a charm.
January 9th, 2010 at 3:58 am
Please help,this is the problem i’m experiencing.i’m windows 7.
Network adapters on this machine:
Unable to create lock file “c7200_i0_lock”.
VM default: unable to create instance!
C7200: unable to create instance!
Use as follows:
F0/0 = NIO_gen_eth:\Device\NPF_{…}
Press any key to continue . . .
January 28th, 2010 at 7:09 am
The Windows 7 loopback issue. Delete the cloud from the topology, save it and restart the computer. Then right-click on gns3 and run as admin. Run network device list.cmd as admin too. Don’t ask me why but (after wasting 2 hrs), it just works!!!
February 1st, 2010 at 6:18 am
Hi,
Am using vista home premium and have followed your video sequentially but still can’t connect microsoft loopback to GNS3.
I equally installed openVPN, but this shows network cable unplugged, even though I have configured my cloud in GNS3.
Need all the help I can get from you.
Thanks so much.
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:29 am
Hi josh,
I ve seen many of your tutorials and i must say u are doing a gr8 job by providing these tutorials. I jst seen your tutorial about loopback interface. I wanna ask that when i m running the file :network device list: to get info for my loopback adapter, it is not showing me any information except the following :
Unable to create lock file “c7200_i0_lock”
VM default: unable to create instance!
c7200: Unable to create instance.
I am using Windows Vista. Can you please tell me any alternate way to get the information about my loopback adapter. I deleted the GNS3 and reinstalled it without any IOS images to first get the loopback adapter but invain :S
Thanks man and keep it up.
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:36 am
@ Josh
After i read some of the comments i tried to run the file by using administrator access but now i m getting a different message.
The system cannot find the path specified.
USe as follows …….
Im using VISTA with administrator rights…
Thnkss
February 23rd, 2010 at 4:03 am
Hi,
For those who are getting these messages after opening network device list file
———————————————————–
Network adapters on this machine:
The system cannot find the path specified.
Use as follows:
F0/0 = NIO_gen_eth:\Device\NPF_{…}
Press any key to continue . . .
——————————————-
Network adapters on this machine:
Unable to create lock file “c7200_i0_lock”.
VM default: unable to create instance!
C7200: unable to create instance!
Use as follows:
F0/0 = NIO_gen_eth:\Device\NPF_{…}
Press any key to continue . . .
———————————————–
For those who are facing these two problems with loopback adapter when using windows VISTA needs to do the following.
-After installing loopback adapter
goto its properties and only put checks on:
- Client for MS network
-IPV4
-Link layer topology discovery mapper
-link layer topology discovery responder.
-Disable USer control frm control panel> user account.
Restart the system.
Run GNS3 as administrator…
Run network device list as administrator
Hopefully now you will be able to see the network adapters attached with your system.
February 27th, 2010 at 6:21 pm
Hi, I have created a MS loopback and it is connected to my lab router. I can ping from PC to my lab router but not vice versa. Do you have any idea?
March 2nd, 2010 at 4:18 pm
I´m struggeling with a scenario with two clouds between three routers in GNS3. Each cloud is connected to two different loopback interfaces and on different subnets. Each loopback are able to ping the next router, but is not able to get futher. Disabling all interfaces on the pc exept for one loopback makes it possible to make my ping packets travel across all the routers. Any sugestion on what to do to be able to run two loopback interfaces on the same pc and still be able to send packets over several routers?
March 7th, 2010 at 12:33 am
@CJ ..
im facing the same problem mate :S