I doubt very much that the Microsoft Loopback Adapter is what you need. As @Jaap suggests, try installing npcap. Also, you can read more about loopback capturing on the Wireshark Loopback capture setup wiki page. To install a loopback adapter on Windows 7: Click Start and enter hdwwiz in the Search box. Click hdwwiz to start the Add Hardware wizard. In the Welcome window, click Next. In the The wizard can help you install other hardware window, select Install the hardware that I manually select from a list, and click Next. Install Loopback Adapter Logon to Windows Server 2012 as a local administrator. Right-click the far bottom left of the Taskbar, over the Start charm when it appears. In the Device Manager window, right-click the server name and select Add legacy hardware from. Click Next on the welcome. From that point on it's the same approach as under Vista, i.e.: In the 'Welcome to the Add Hardware Wizard', click Next. Select 'Install the hardware that I manually select from a list (Advanced)' and click Next. Scroll down and select 'Network adapters' and click Next. Select under Manufacturer.
Active1 year, 8 months ago
Just as the question says, what is the Microsoft Loopback Adapter, and as a bonus, what scenerios as a developer would it be useful? I've noticed it's been required when installing a couple of applications to my machine, but aside from guessing, I've never have had a sturdy understanding of it's functionality.
I've read a couple of articles online, but nothing really made me 'get it'. While I don't need a hugely complex answer, a little explaination would be very useful.
Thanks!George
George JohnstonGeorge Johnston24.6k2525 gold badges110110 silver badges167167 bronze badges
4 Answers
Well, the best answer I can give you is a few links.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoopbackThe key sentence here is
Install Microsoft Loopback Adapter Windows 8
'Any traffic that a computer program sends to the loopback interface is immediately received on the same interface.'
http://www.juniper.net/techpubs/software/erx/erx50x/swconfig-system-basics/html/system-mgmt15.htmlThis may be a little more obscure if you don't know networking well.
Basically, it's a fake network interface, useful for tests and stability. In practice, most likely something you'll never have to worry about (or you'd already know about it!)
Add Microsoft Loopback Adapter Windows 7
TrevokeTrevoke3,58511 gold badge2222 silver badges4747 bronze badges
When sending messages to 127.0.0.1 (or the localhost) the internal network driver typically handles this by shortcutting a few steps.
If you have a networksniffer/protocol analyzer like wireshark, it can not see these shortcutted packets.
By using a loopback adapter, the messages get send much further through the stack, enabling programs like wireshark to capture the packets (and enabling you to analyze the packets)
ToadToad10.6k1111 gold badges6868 silver badges122122 bronze badges
Here's an explanation that might be a bit easier to understand - one I'm working on at the moment.
We (a Bank) are pretty damn secure, as you would expect. One of our third party vendors requires the POS java app that we have to use connect to a 172.x.x.x address. Well, that's not routable.
So we have loopback adapters, one for each of their 172.x.x.x addresses, with the address we will allow as the IP. We then use the 'netsh' command to redirect traffic...
So any traffic that access, for example, 172.1.1.1 will get intercepted by Loopback Adapter #1 and redirected to 10.2.2.2. The pain is having one adapter per address.
Hope that makes it a little clearer.
Jon BiddellJon Biddell
Some software requires some network functionality, even if the machine in question doesn't have network functionality. The loopback is a dummy network driver, which can have real network protocols bound to it. This allows the software to install properly, even though there isn't a real network card installed in the machine.
Aaron MAaron M1,86311 gold badge1919 silver badges3737 bronze badges