How to create a virtual network interface in Windows?

Question

On Linux, you can create a tun interface using the tun driver, which provides a "psuedo-device network interface" that can be thought of as a regular network interface. Is there a way to do this programmatically on windows? Is there any way to do this without writing my own driver?

Answer 1

You can do this in XP using the Microsoft Loopback Adapter , which is the driver for the virtual network card.

In a newer version of Windows: Installing the Microsoft Loopback Adapter on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012

Answer 2

@Tim
Depending on the licensing, you can use the TUN / TAP driver, which is part of OpenVPN, see here for details.

Answer 3

In a Singularity project, Microsoft research communicates with a virtual virtual machine through a loopback adapter. Maybe this will help?

Starting up is easy, so there might be something interesting anyway. :)

http://research.microsoft.com/os/Singularity/