Having recently bought a license for Workstation 14.0 Pro so as to use Player to run some pre-existing VMs created by a colleague, while trying to get network connectivity working, an issue with Workstation/Player regarding an inability to use a bridged network connection was encountered. Sadly, after installing the tools and after confirming that VMs ran nicely in both Windows and Linux, and after being pleasantly surprised how much ESXi interaction was possible in Linux, a gnarly problem occurred while attempting to connect VMs on a Windows 10 host to the network. Networking just didn't work - bridging, NAT, nothing. Being new to Workstation/Player, albeit having a fair amount of ESXi experience, there might be a possibility that this was made more difficult by lack of knowledge, but, in retrospect, it sure seems as though the installer is broken and left off an important driver from the Windows 10 installation. In any event, the following documents symptoms encountered, and how the problem was ultimately resolved.
Upon booting a VM for which network connectivity was required, if one went into the VM properties, under Virtual Machine Settings | Hardware | Network Adapter | Device status, it became clear that the Connected checkbox was unchecked even though Connect at power on was checked. Since, based on my experience, some Connect checkboxes can be set at run-time, an attempt was made to correct the issue by checking the Connected checkbox, but, upon clicking Apply or OK, this resulted in two dialogs:
To clarify, the symptoms were observed while a "Bridged" connection was specified for the VM "Network Adapter" "Network connection" method.
Note: Had I been able to get "NAT" working, I might have side-stepped the bridged network problem, but, as of yet, I've not resolved why this particular VM doesn't like NAT even though other VMs (including a SCO 5.0.7V VM with a similar OS) do work fine with NAT even when bridging is broken.
It may be helpful to mention that VMware Player and VMware Workstation both behaved similarly.
After seeing the dialogs above, more attention was paid to VM power up, and it became evident that the issues with Ethernet0 were present when network Bridging was in use - before the VM booted, though this pre-boot error notice had not previously been seen:
Several methods were used in multiple to attempt a fix of networking, but all failed to correct the problem. Some of the attempted methods were:
1) Edit | Virtual Network Editor... | Restore Defaults
2) Repair of the installation (essentially uninstall/reinstall VMware drivers)
Many attempts to correct the issue were made, some even with pedantic VM and host reboots to assure changes were actually finalized, but nothing helped to resolve the problem.
The solution that finally fixed networking was to modify Windows 10 settings for the network adapter to add a missing "VMware Bridge Protocol" driver:
Windows 10
Start
Settings
Settings
Network & Internet
Settings
Network & Internet
Status
Change adapter options
Control Panel/Network and Internet/Network Connections
Right-click Ethernet
Properties
Ethernet Properties
Networking
Install...
-
Select Network Feature Type
Service
[ Add... ]
Select Network Service
Manufacturer
VMware, Inc.
Network Service:
VMware Bridge Protocol
[ OK ]
Ethernet Properties
Networking
[x] VMware Bridge Protocol
[ Close ]
Control Panel/Network and Internet/Network Connections
[X]
Settings
[X]
Windows 10
Start
Power
Restart
It seems very odd that Workstation/Player installers would not install this driver by default when it is so critical to this type of network connection, and when it is not at all clear that another driver is required, but perhaps this post might help someone else avoid the lengthy troubleshoot and resolution effort that inspired it.