VMWare Player Wireless Adaptor Issue

[Cleffer]

I'm relatively new to VMWare Player and have a networking problem.  I'm running VMWare player v4.04 with a Windows 7 host and VM.

I'm using the VM to VPN and am attempting to set up the VM with the host wireless IP.

The VM Network is set to Bridged w/Replicate and detects the physical network adaptor, state, and IP without issue, however, it is not detecting the wireless adaptor at all.  It's not listed in the Device Manager of the VM, the IP, nor the state..

What would be the proper course of action?

Thank you for your time.

[a_p_]

Welcome ot the Community,

VMware Player always presents a wired NIC to the guest, no matter what the physical system uses. If you need a wireless adapter in the VM, you need to attach e.g. an USB wireless adapter to the host and connect it to the guest as an USB device.

André

[Cleffer]

Embedded Host Wireless NICs won't work in a VM?

[WoodyZ]

As you've already been told, "VMware Player always presents a wired NIC to the guest, no matter what the physical system uses." however if you need a WiFi Network Adapter to be present in the Virtual Machine's Guest OS then you'll need to supply your own USB WiFi Network Adapter.   Otherwise if the Host's WiFi Network Adapter is active the Virtual Machine will have connectivity through it, only it shows as a Wired Ethernet Adapter to the Guest OS.

[Cleffer]

I understand that the VM is only going to present a wired adaptor.

What I'm after is that the VM is not detecting the IP the Host wireless NIC is pulling.  The VM performs flawlessly with the host hardware NIC, but not the wireless one.

[WoodyZ]

Not all WiF Network Adapters and or WiF Routers work with VMware Bridge Protocol and this is usually more a Host side and or Router issue then a VMware issue other then to disable automatic bridging on VMnet0 in the Virtual Network Editor and assign a specific Host NIC when the Host is multihomed.  After disabling automatic bridging the other suggestion it to try manually assigning the appropriate addresses for the NIC in the Guest OS vs. using DHCP.

[WoodyZ · Accepted solution]

BTW VMware Player 3.x and later does not install the Virtual Network Editor by default and you'll need to install it manually...

To install the missing Virtual Network Editor, from a Command Prompt:

VMware-player-*.exe -e c:\vmptmp

Then in the c:\vmptmp folder locate the c:\vmptmp\network.cab file and extract (double-click the .cab file) the vmnetcfg.exe (Virtual Network Editor) file to the VMware Player working directory usually "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Player" or "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Player".  You can create a shortcut for it and place it with the VMware Player shortcut if you want easier access to it.  Note: It takes a little while for all the files to be extracted to then have access to the network.cab file.

[Cleffer]

vmnetcfg was the missing link!!  Thanks for your assistance!