Network connection emulation on Windows 7

[Incognito]

I have a curious question. Are there any apps or settings that need to be adjusted to emulate a network connection on Windows 7 64bit?

What I'm looking for specifically is to make Windows think there is a network connection even though there is no Ethernet cable connected. Is that possible and where can I find the means to achieve this goal?

[Obi Two Kenobi]

What do you hope to do with something like that?

[Wesley]

Start > Right-click Computer > Manage > Click Action > Add Legacy Hardware > Click Next and Choose to Install hardware from a list > Choose Network Adapters from the list and click Next > Click Microsoft and on the right window select Loopback Adapter > Click Next twice to install the adapter.

From within Computer Management you can right-click the adapter and give it a network address (default is 127.0.0.1). In Network and Sharing Center it detects the Loopback adapter as part of an unknown network but you can give it an address and then you'll be able to select Home or Work as another option.

[Incognito]

Thanks a bunch Wesley. As always you're a legend!

@Kenobi a friend of mine was asking about it and it struck me as curious. I tried google but no luck. The question was lingering in my mind that it should be possible but I didn't know how. What my friend will do with the knowledge is anyone's guess.

[Wesley]

Most likely he wants to have two IP addresses for one computer without buying extra network cards. Gigabit ethernet connections allow up to 10 full-speed 100Mb connections assuming you have the client connections on 100Mb switches (taking in overheads like encryption and different hard drive speeds, each client tops out at 95Mb in real life). Virtual adapters are useful, for instance, when you're doing your CISCO network exams and you can't recreate the environments in the textbooks with physical hardware. One could use the adapters that are included in software like VMware to have a multi-server and multi-client environment and to simulate network load given certain circumstances.

Its also useful for setting up a proxy server or a FTP server using Filezilla without doing too much fiddling with the already-working network configuration.