--- a/src/devices/tap-bridge/tap-bridge.cc	Tue Feb 10 16:41:54 2009 -0800
+++ b/src/devices/tap-bridge/tap-bridge.cc	Wed Feb 11 18:07:52 2009 -0800
@@ -41,6 +41,12 @@
 #include <limits>
 #include <stdlib.h>
 
+// #define NO_CREATOR
+
+#ifdef NO_CREATOR
+#include <fcntl.h>
+#endif
+
 NS_LOG_COMPONENT_DEFINE ("TapBridge");
 
 namespace ns3 {
@@ -193,6 +199,19 @@
 TapBridge::CreateTap (void)
 {
   NS_LOG_FUNCTION_NOARGS ();
+
+#ifdef NO_CREATOR
+  //
+  // In come cases, can you say FreeBSD, the tap-creator just gets in the way.
+  // in this case, just define NO_CREATOR, manually set up your tap device and
+  // just open and use it.
+  //
+  std::string tapDeviceName = "/dev/" + m_tapDeviceName;
+  m_sock = open (tapDeviceName.c_str (), O_RDWR);
+  NS_ABORT_MSG_IF (m_sock == -1, "TapBridge::CreateTap(): could not open device " << tapDeviceName << 
+                   ", errno " << strerror (errno));
+#else // use the tap-creator
+
   //
   // We want to create a tap device on the host.  Unfortunately for us
   // you have to have root privileges to do that.  Instead of running the 
@@ -473,6 +492,7 @@
 	}
       NS_FATAL_ERROR ("Did not get the raw socket from the socket creator");
     }
+#endif // use the tap-creator
 }
 
 std::string

--- a/src/devices/tap-bridge/wscript	Tue Feb 10 16:41:54 2009 -0800
+++ b/src/devices/tap-bridge/wscript	Wed Feb 11 18:07:52 2009 -0800
@@ -32,10 +32,12 @@
                 'tap-bridge.h',
                 ])
 
-        obj = bld.create_suid_program('tap-creator')
-        obj.source = [
-            'tap-creator.cc',
-            'tap-encode-decode.cc',
-            ]
+
+        if not env['PLATFORM'].startswith('freebsd'):
+            obj = bld.create_suid_program('tap-creator')
+            obj.source = [
+                'tap-creator.cc',
+                'tap-encode-decode.cc',
+                ]
 
 

--- a/wscript	Tue Feb 10 16:41:54 2009 -0800
+++ b/wscript	Wed Feb 11 18:07:52 2009 -0800
@@ -240,6 +240,8 @@
         env.append_value('CXXDEFINES', 'NS3_ASSERT_ENABLE')
         env.append_value('CXXDEFINES', 'NS3_LOG_ENABLE')
 
+    env['PLATFORM'] = sys.platform
+
     if sys.platform == 'win32':
         if env['COMPILER_CXX'] == 'g++':
             env.append_value("LINKFLAGS", "-Wl,--enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc")