networking Windows guest on a Linuxhost

[GUS01]

Set up.

I am running Fedora 27 Workstation 64 bit (fully up to date) as my host.  This all works fine and has the network operating with a fixed IP address, for example 192.68.A.B

  I have installed VMware 14 (latest version as of 20 April).  The install went smoothly with no issues.  I can open VMware and run it.

As my Guest I installed Windows 98SE (by way of an experiment)  This all went ok and the guest additions have been installed.  Everything seems to function but I can not access the local network.

My local network is set so each computer has a fixed IP  192.168.A.xxx, (subnet 255.255.55.0) The router acts as the DNS. All this seems to work fine.  I have two Linux machines and 1 Windows 7 machine, all hard wired to the LAN and a Laptop which just picks up an IP when it is connected via wireless.

I want o add the Windows 98Se machine to the network with a fixed IP address. So under Windows 98SE networking TCP/IP  and its assorted Network card I set the IP address of 192.168.A.C guest Sub net 255.255.255.0 put in the Gateway address 192.168.A.A and DNS address (gateway address) give the host name and workgroup name (workgroup name same as other windows machines workgroup name)

When Windows 98SE was installed as the guest the VM network was set as Bridged.

When I have windows 98SE running and click Network Neighbor hood I get the Entire Network icon only. Click on the Entire Network icon and I either get “can not browse the network” or “specific computer did not receive your request”.

In windows if I I issue the command ipconfig

I see;

0Ethernet adapter IP 0.0.0.0

                Subnet 0.0.0.0

1Ethernet adapter  IP 192.168.A.C

                       Subnet 255.255.255.0

                   Gateway 192.168.0.A.A

Do not want to try and connect to the internet with windows 98SE. If I go to one of the other machines on the network I can ping 192.168.A.B but I can not map the Windows 98SE drive on any of the machines in the network and neither does the Windows 98SE machine show up in any of the network neighbor hoods, The drive on the windows 98 machine is shared along with a specific folder.

HOST MACHINE LINUX Fedora 27

looking at the network setup I see network adapters for;

VMNET1 and VMNET8 only. Both are connected. I do not see VMNET0 which I understand is for Bridging.

I see vmware-netcfg in usr/lib/vmware/bin but I can not open the file to edit it as suggested in some forums on the web. The to get VMNET0 added to the list of network adapters. I have tried using X and Wayland.

So far this long winded explanation can any one tell me the following;

1. How to get the computers to show up in the guest’s Network Neighbor ­hood?

2. How to be able to get to map the guest on the other computers in the network at require this. I know how the syntax to map a drive but at present the guest is not showing up on the computer I want o map it drive to. (but as I indicated above I can ping it). I have tried using the Windows 98SE assigned IP address and the computer name etc.

3. How to get vmware-netcfg to open so VMNET0 can be added and any other changes made

4 Alternatively how to add VMNET0 to the adapters.

I have not tried NAT as I am not sure how to set this up with a fixed IP address on the local network 192.168.A.xxx and again make sure the computers show up in the Network neighbor hood on the Windows 98SE machine ans the other Windows computers on the network.

YWT
  YesI know Windows 98SE is old but I do have a specific reason for getting this networking to work

Can any one assist please.

Thanks