That update checker uses a different subsystem than the one you're having problems with, and if there is a firewall blocking traffic on a program by program basis, as is common on Windows, that update checker should not work either.

If you get an immediate result saying "No new VMware Player updates are available", then the update checker is working and so should our Tools download mechanism.

Finally, if you're in the San Francisco Bay Area, I would be willing to come assist you personally as we are very interested in ironing out the wrinkles with this feature (or conversely invite you to Palo Alto.) Alternatively, if you are willing to trust me, I could remote desktop or VNC into your machine to investigate for myself. This will help us make Workstation and Player better for everyone. Let me know what you think.

After reading all of the postings and tried all of the suggestions I am still not able to download the VMWare Tools.

Basically it trys to download from softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds (yes I can access it from IE & Firefox and no I dont have a proxy server) The"Connection Status:" remains with "Connecting" with zero network activity.

PLEASE HELP!

Anyway, could you do the 'check for updates on the web' thing?

Sorry this is giving you such a tough time. Maybe Lee Kuan Yew is blocking the download...

Thanks for your help guys.

1) Check for updates from the Help menu.

2) Power on a VM and attempt to download Tools. If it hangs there, let it sit there until it returns an error message.If it doesn't move after like 10-20 minutes, hit the cancel button, and quit Workstation/Player cleanly.

After this I'm going to personally try to reproduce this and see what happens.

Thanks.