Do I Need To Care About Windows 7 Network Discovery Configuration?

[Dreanmachine]

Howdy.  Loving Fusion 6.0.2 managing my Windows 7 Premium 64 bit system on my MBP (early 2011).  I have a simple question regarding if I need to play around with turning on Network Discovery and doing a sharegroup setup between my two MBPs on my wi-fi network.  Right now I can just share between my MBP's via the OS X Finder interface (Shared Network assets).  I currently have Network Discovery turned off on each MBP that has Windows 7 installed through Fusion 6, and I have not established a Sharegroup between the two (I tried, but each computer didn't see that someone had created a start group).  Am I ok to just leave all this alone, or is there some way to activate this within Windows 7 under the OS X networking default provided by Fusion?  Would there even be any benefit to play these games?  Thanks in advance!

[WoodyZ]

By default a Virtual Machine's Network Adapter is set to NAT (Share with my Mac) so each of the VM's on different Hosts would not normally communicate with each other as they are on different Subnets.  If you set them to Bridged then they'd be on the same Subnet as the Hosts and assuming both Hosts are also on the same Subnet then both VM's could then communicate directly with each other.

[Dreanmachine]

Thanks for the quick reply WoodyZ.  I was just reading a description of NAT versus Bridge mode.  For me, with a simple use of the VMs (one host MBP for me and one host MBP for my wife), where we can share each others files under the OS X Mavericks Share capability, keeping the Virtual Network Adapter on NAT is probably fine, correct?  Bridge mode probably won't buy us any value on my home network sharing capabilities from what OS X is providing.  I just wanted to make sure I am optimized.

[WoodyZ]

If what you're trying to share resides directly on the OS X Filesystem and not within the Guest OSes Filesystem then NAT is fine and no reasoner to have Windows File Sharing and or Windows Network Discovery turned on.  Sharing directly between the two Macs using File Sharing in Sharing under System Preferences is all you would need between the two Hosts.

[Dreanmachine]

Sounds right, and thank you.  However, one more final question?  Under the NAT configured system, if I am working in my VM Windows 7 environment, and I want to print a file to one of my two network printers, will this go through?  The VM Fusion setup for printing says to share the OS X Printers, and they do come up as available in Control panel.  Am I still ok under NAT?

[WoodyZ]

I rarely need to print to other then PDF and while I have physical printers nonetheless a blue moon occurs more often then I turn them on.  That said, I'd think that with VMware Tools installed then what ever printers show on the Host should show/work via ThinPrint of VMware Tools and be available directly to the VM where supported.   What Printers are showing in your VM and are they what shows on the Host?

[Dreanmachine]

Yes, the VM is showing the same printers as the Mac host.  In Windows Control Panel, under Printers, the same two printers are available.  I will experiment tonight and see if printing does indeed occur in NAT mode.  The paper I read said for network printing and sharing, Bridge mode should be selected.  I got confused a bit . . . .

[WoodyZ]

Printing should work via NAT and ThinPrint and Bridged should only have to be use if you want to connect directly to a Host LAN Network Resource.