Support for wireless networking

[joohnno]

I have a new iMacrunning OSX 10.5.6 and VMWare Fusion running 2.0.2. I connect to a Dlink wireless hub using password based encryption. The OSX side all works fine with virtually no input from me except the password.

My virtual environment is Windows XP Professional, straight off the CD. I have not had the chance to upgrade because I cannot get it to connect to the network.

I have trawled the forums and have tried NAT and bridge configurations, ipconfig /release seems to work but the /renew fails with XP saying it cannot find a file (of course being Microsoft it doesn't say which file!). In XP ipconfig /all tells me that DHCP server 192.168.238.254 and DNS at 192.168.238.2 (The OSX partition uses 192.168.0.2, and my "physical XP unit " has DHCP and secondary DNS set to this also). DHCP is enabled but XP does not have an IP address. Autoconfiguration is enabled.

I must admit to be new to iMac but have been in the IT game a while.

Joohnno

[hstagner]

Hello Joohnno,

From the different subnet IP address, it sounds like you have it set up as a NAT or Private connection right now. Try with bridged (I know you said you did, but humor us:) ), turn off the Windows XP Firewall, reboot and try a release and renew. Let us know if that helps any.

Don't forget to use the buttons on the side to award points if you found this useful (you'll get points too).

Regards,

Harley Stagner

[joohnno]

Thankyou Harley

I have since downloaded (via Safari) and installed SP3 for XP. Currently have the Virtual Machine/Network Adaptor/Bridged and have done ipconfig /release then /renew. Renew still fails. Since rebooting vmware McAfee icon has disappeared from the bottom right corner and if I try and invoke it from the shortcut it flashes onto the screen and immediately exits.

The windows firewall was not running, but McAfee might have been (can't tell), I have a firewall on the DLink so am not too concerned about leaving the internal ones off for now.

And I don't have connectivity

Regards

[joohnno]

A little more information.

OSX Network config is what I would expect. It has a DHCP IP Address 192.168.0.196 (my physical XP unit is running 192.168.0.172 on wire). Both show 192.168.0.1 for the router.

I notice that VMWare Tools icon (bottom right) is saying "VMWare tools service is not running" and I don't know what this means as, if I open this up, all the boxes are ticked.

Regards

[joohnno]

Am still trying bridged.

Manually started the vmware tools service and noticed a lot of other services which should be automatic were not started. So ended up rebooting XP.

After the reboot VMWare tools service still isn't started even though it is automatic. It starts alright manually.

Failure on the ipconfig /renew is now "The RPC Server is unavaliable", the XP RPC service is started.

Same results when virtual machine/network adaptor/NAT !

AND there seems to be a script error when opening the service window.

Regards

[hstagner]

Hello Joohnno,

I am not sure about the script error. That could be a number of things. I would try to disable McAfee temporarily and see if that helps. Also, you can try rebuilding your TCP/IP stack using netsh in Windows XP. Just type the following at the command prompt.

netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt

Then reboot for the changes to take affect.

Let us know if this helps.

Don't forget to use the buttons on the side to award points if you found this useful (you'll get points too).

Regards,

Harley Stagner

[joohnno]

netsh int ip ip reset resetlog.txt gave "WARNING Could not obtain host information from machine"

In trawling through the history some are of the view that VMWARE is not capable of connecting an XP network to a host connected by wireless.

What I'm seeing supports that view. Hopefully its not the case because the wireless host is much preferred.

My feedback to vmware has so far been met with deafening silence. I'm almost tempted to pay for a service call and would if I had any confidence in getting a result. Its $42 here.

There is clearly some sort of failure between the XP networking and host, but not totally so, because it is recognising the IP address but not managing DHCP.

My next thought is to try without DHCP and use fixed IP addressing between the iMac and the wireless router, this would force both to share the same IP address but whether this would cause a problem with the IP stacks I have no idea.

Another thought is to see if the iMac is able to act as a router for XP and respond to a DHCP. Trouble is you are really in the dark when it comes to trying to work this out, expecially with MS.

Regards

Regards