Please review if you are having bridged wireless network issues

[Pat_Lee]

Based on the various forum posts, I would like to consolidate and collect more information in this thread. Please respond here even if you responded elsewhere, it will allow us to more easily find trends if everyone responds here:

If you are having problems with bridged wireless networking:

1) What Mac do you have?

2) What version of Mac OS X are you running?

3) Are you running B, G, N or a combination of wireless networking technologies?

4) What base station are you connected to?

5) Have you applied the latest Airport Update from 7/30 and does it help?

6) If you are using N networking, if you drop back to G or B networking, does the problem occur?

I am sure the networking folks will have more questions, but I would like to start here.

Thanks for your help in trying help us to better understand what is going on.

Best,

Pat Lee

Senior Product Manager - Mac Products

VMware

[whosyourtator]

I there an update on this issue? I have tried everything in

my vm in order to use bridged mode without disconnects. I have

reinstalled Fusion, manually specified the mac address, removed the use

of DHCP. I still get disconnects from my airport router only when using

Fusion. Could you allow us to confgure the bridged mac address in Fusion? Maybe that would fix it.

Best Regards

[wingdo]

Well, it's been 2 months since Pat created this post and the issue was known before the post was created. During these 2 months, the last word from vmware is that they still cannot reporduce the problem.

Sadly, I need to work in a bridged environment so I have had to go back to PD for now as I do not see a resolution coming shortly.

[gammelkamel]

I agree.

I am completely new to mac. I have a brand new macbook (september 07, can't say specifications).

At work I am unable to run bridged wireless network - unless I plug in an ethernet cable. Then everything works fine, even if I remove the cable. It seems, that I can connect to the access point, but don't get an ip-address.

The accesspoints are a bit un-common, from Meru Networks. Worked fine when I ran Parallels though

At home on my old b-type network, there's no problem.

So, please come up with a solution very soon.

[michaelr]

To VMware:

>if we had an internal example of this problem, we'd have it fixed by now

What APs and routers have you been able to successfully work with? There are a number of devices listed in this thread which do not work. It would be of benefit to users if you could tells us which ones do work. I have tried several different models from 4 different vendos so far and can't find one which works. I'd be willing to use a 5 vendor's product if I knew it would work.

[talk2sk]

I believe I have a solution to this, at least it works for me.

After many hours of frustration, I realized that this problem was not related to the host . The network works perfectly fine from Ubuntu. I had trouble only on Windows XP . The network was working when I installed the virtual machine, but then just stopped. After searching high and low I found a couple of websites that allowed me to debug the issue once I tried ipconfig /renew and it failed with RPC Server not available:

Once I tried query the settings for netbt and start netbt, I found that netbt was the cause for the problem. for some reason it just fails to start. hence the dhcp client cannot start. I tried a couple of things to debug this, but I wasnt able to. So I went into the registry and removed netbt from the dependson for the dhcp service. After a reboot everything works fine !!.

I am sure the netbt service is still failingm but the dhcp is working fine.

Hope this helps you, and hope this helps vmware solve the problem. If the vmware guys require any further information I could setup remote access for the macbook and you could play around

Cheers.

[michaelr]

This is another problem. For me the DHCP works fine. Windows XP has an IP address. All non-broadcast traffic fails however. It is a problem in VMware when it tries to use bridged mode with the wireless.

[mjankor]

This may help. This testing was done over an Airport extreme network (802.11n) to an 802.11G Mac Mini (10.0.1.201) from my 802.11n iMac

Experiments with network encryption turned off.

Other than these interesting ping results the Fusion environment seems to work "ok". If I turn WPA encryption on, then the Fusion environment network dies and takes out the Mac's network as well. This only happens on the 802.11N Airport Extreme. On my 802.11G Express network I can run encryption with no problems.

Without VMWare fusion running

Ping has started ...

PING 10.0.1.201 (10.0.1.201): 56 data bytes

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.817 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.832 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=1.462 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.838 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0.841 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=1.324 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=0.843 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=0.835 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=0.878 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=9 ttl=64 time=0.844 ms

--- 10.0.1.201 ping statistics ---

10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0% packet loss

round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.817/0.951/1.462/0.223 ms

With VMWare Fusion Running

Ping has started ...

PING 10.0.1.201 (10.0.1.201): 56 data bytes

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=1.451 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=3.312 ms (DUP!)

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=1.496 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=3.400 ms (DUP!)

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=1.470 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=4.379 ms (DUP!)

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=1.453 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=3.784 ms (DUP!)

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=1.465 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=3.393 ms (DUP!)

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=1.403 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=3.299 ms (DUP!)

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=1.422 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=2.503 ms (DUP!)

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=1.531 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=15.362 ms (DUP!)

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=4.251 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=6.431 ms (DUP!)

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=9 ttl=64 time=1.520 ms

--- 10.0.1.201 ping statistics ---

10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, +9 duplicates, 0% packet loss

round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 1.403/3.333/15.362/3.149 ms

Here are ping results running WEP with Fusion open. (Ping results with Fusion closed are essentially the same as with no encryption and Fusion closed.)

Ping has started ...

PING 10.0.1.201 (10.0.1.201): 56 data bytes

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=5.313 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=4.938 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=3.337 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=3.904 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=2.969 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=2.621 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=3.463 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=4.463 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=5.328 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.201: icmp_seq=9 ttl=64 time=3.544 ms

--- 10.0.1.201 ping statistics ---

10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0% packet loss

round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 2.621/3.988/5.328/0.921 ms

[mjankor]

Dammit, After saying WEP looked ok I left Fusion for 5 mins and it had killed the network when i returned to it. Pinging while trying to copy files across from the server showed an 80% packet loss.

[Bobbernickle]

I'm a new Fusion user and am having this problem. Here is my setup:

1) What Mac do you have?

MacBook Pro, 2.16 Intel Core 2

2) What version of Mac OS X are you running?

10.4.10 w/all patches

3) Are you running B, G, N or a combination of wireless networking technologies?

G

4) What base station are you connected to?

Apple Airport Extreme

5) Have you applied the latest Airport Update from 7/30 and does it help?

Applied. Doesn't help.

6) If you are using N networking, if you drop back to G or B networking, does the problem occur?

My gear doesn't support N.

[squirrelfeast]

1) What Mac do you have?

MacBook Pro 2.4 Ghz "Santa Rosa"[/b]

2) What version of Mac OS X are you running?

10.4.10 with all updates.[/b]

3) Are you running B, G, N or a combination of wireless networking technologies?

G[/b]

4) What base station are you connected to?

Linksys WRT54G v.3[/b]

5) Have you applied the latest Airport Update from 7/30 and does it help?

Yes. No.[b]

[kazoo]

NAT works very poorly. I can get Internet Explorer to show its home page, but that's it. I can ping some addresses, but never pull up a web site that isn't the home page. I can't get bridged networking to work at all.

1) What Mac do you have?

MacBook Pro

2) What version of Mac OS X are you running?

10.4.10

Model Name: MacBook Pro 17"

Model Identifier: MacBookPro2,1

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Speed: 2.33 GHz

Number Of Processors: 1

Total Number Of Cores: 2

L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB

Memory: 2 GB

Bus Speed: 667 MHz

Boot ROM Version: MBP21.00A5.B07

SMC Version: 1.14f5

3) Are you running B, G, N or a combination of wireless networking technologies?

G

4) What base station are you connected to?

Linksys WRT54G

5) Have you applied the latest Airport Update from 7/30 and does it help?

I run the system updater, so I assume so, but don't know

6) If you are using N networking, if you drop back to G or B networking, does the problem occur?

N/A

I am sure the networking folks will have more questions, but I would like to start here.

Thanks for your help in trying help us to better understand what is going on.

[DeLellis]

Well, this doesn't solve the problem, but...

I found that Fusion works GREAT IF you turn off Airport and just access the network via an Ethernet cable. Like I said, this is a work around we shouldn't have to resort to, and this does NOT solve the problem or crashing the network when running wirelessly with Airport turned on.

Now that I've had an opportunity to run Fusion for more than a couple of minutes I've got to say that Fusion is a great program. In fact, I uninstalled Parallels today. I was amazed to find out you can just drag and drop files from the Finder to the Windows XP desktop, and running in the Unity mode makes the experience of running a Windows program as "Mac-like" as possible.

BTW, FYI I'm running a MacBook Pro 17 Core Duo 2 with 3 GB RAM on an Airport Extreme 802.11n network.

VMware please solve the Airport problem ASAP!!

Bob

[kazoo]

Thanks for letting me know. I might end up needing the hardwired idea.

[piacentini]

I am also having this trouble. In my case, it was not occurring when I had a Linksys WRT54G with DD-WRT. Two weeks ago I exchanged this WRT54G for an Airport Express, and the problem surfaced. Using a MBP, 10.4.10, Fusion 1.1 beta.

What happens in this case is that after some random time DNS queries do not resolve, and the host network goes down. Ping does not work, even if the airport status shows that it is connected. Notice that it happens EVEN if the guest is not running. When this happens, it seems to cause some lines in the system.log, like

Oct 22 10:38:54 MauMacBook mDNSResponder: getifaddrs ifa_netmask for vmnet8(8) Flags 8863 Family 2 192.168.8.1 has different family: 0

Oct 22 10:38:54 MauMacBook mDNSResponder: getifaddrs ifa_netmask for vmnet1(9) Flags 8863 Family 2 192.168.114.1 has different family: 0

Oct 22 10:38:54 MauMacBook mDNSResponder: Repeated transitions for interface en1 (10.0.1.2); delaying packets by 5 seconds

The first two can be found at different intervals in the logs, usually 15 minutes apart. And sometimes they are followed by the one with error (delaying packets.) And that seems to be related to the ocasions when the network goes down.

In this particular setup I am using WEP security (to be compatible with older 10.2 clients). Windows sharing is also on, not sure if it makes a difference. I will try now with no encryption to see if reliability increases.

[kazoo]

In my case, I probably had a corrupted IE after my install. I was able to (sometimes) ping other sites, etc. I have a working IE, which is IE7 now.

1. Internet Explorer didn't work, but networking, such as ftp, did. I was able to resolve this on my own by ftp'ing the Opera web browser. I installed Opera & used it to download Firefox, & used Firefox to download IE7. I installed IE7 and now that works! So IE not working is resolved.

2. My boot camp partition is no longer bootable using bootcamp. This is still broke, as far as I know. I'd like to either be able to migrate that partition into a Fusion image or get bootcamp to work right. But at least I'm up & running reasonably well. (This is off topic to this thread, I know)

I would still like to be able to use bootcamp to boot up this partition, but I sure am happier today than I was yesterday.

[EliJG]

My Mac seems to work fine until I launch VMware. Then a couple of things happen:

- Network connections inside Windows XP Pro (fully service packed) are intermittent

- The wireless connection for my Mac will sometimes just stop and the signal indicator shows no signal. When I reconnect, it comes back.

- VMware sometimes seems to go into suspension if I leave it unattended for a while. I'll return to find VMware either gone entirely or open with the big "play" button in the middle of a blank vm window.

1) What Mac do you have?

MacBook Pro 15" 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo

2) What version of Mac OS X are you running?

10.4.10

3) Are you running B, G, N or a combination of wireless networking technologies?

Base stations are AirPort Extreme N connected by gigabit Ethernet. Laptop is running N, though other devices are running G.

4) What base station are you connected to?

AirPort Extreme N / Gigabit

5) Have you applied the latest Airport Update from 7/30 and does it help?

Yes, and it does not help.

6) If you are using N networking, if you drop back to G or B networking, does the problem occur?

I have not had the time to reconfigure to try this.

[JYork]

1) What Mac do you have?

MBP Santa Rosa 2.2 Ghz, 2G RAM

2) What version of Mac OS X are you running?

10.4.10

3) Are you running B, G, N or a combination of wireless networking technologies?

I cannot get a DHCP address whether I use my G access point, or an ethernet cable.

4) What base station are you connected to?

Dlink DGW

5) Have you applied the latest Airport Update from 7/30 and does it help?

Yes, it does not help.

6) If you are using N networking, if you drop back to G or B networking, does the problem occur?

This happens whether I'm wired or wireless. I've tried XP 32bit, W2K3 64bit, and Fedora Core 7 32 bit. Bridged networking isn't usable in any VM at this point. So far, this seems to happen 100% of the time. The XP VM worked for about 3 days before flaking out.

- Justin York

[whosyourtator]

Can we please get an update from VMWare on this issue? Have you made any headway on it?

[osultan]

1) What Mac do you have? MBP 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

2) What version of Mac OS X are you running? 10.4.10

3) Are you running B, G, N or a combination of wireless networking technologies? Combination

4) What base station are you connected to? Airport Extreme, various Cisco access points

5) Have you applied the latest Airport Update from 7/30 and does it help? Yes, no

6) If you are using N networking, if you drop back to G or B networking, does the problem occur? n/a

[FluffyDevilBunn]

1) What Mac do you have?

Mac Book Pro 17"

2) What version of Mac OS X are you running?

10.4.10

3) Are you running B, G, N or a combination of wireless networking technologies?

B and G depending on location

4) What base station are you connected to?

Depends on location. Mostly Cisco at work and Linksys (also Cisco) at home. Not sure what Starbucks uses.

5) Have you applied the latest Airport Update from 7/30 and does it help?

Don't know. Mac says there are no updates for my computer. If this is a hotfix, not sure where you manually download it from.

6) If you are using N networking, if you drop back to G or B networking, does the problem occur?

N/A

I am unable to bind VMWare to the wireless card at all. I can only use CAT5/6 type connections.