Wi-Fi network profile

[dcobb013]

Is there any way to configure a Win10 guest ethernet such that it can be connected to a different Wi-Fi network than the OS X host? From the playing around I've been able to do with Bridged Networking, it seems like I'm restricted to only the Wi-Fi net the Mac has already joined.

Thanks

D

[bluefirestorm]

Not exactly sure if it will work but...

...if you don't mind another USB dongle to carry around, one possible way is to use a USB WiFi and connect the Windows VM to it.

[bluefirestorm]

Just to add some more thoughts...

The likelihood of using the USB WiFi dongle approach should work is quite high unless there are some quirks with USB WiFi adapters and/or networks usage with Fusion. The trick will be to find a USB WiFi device that has drivers for both MacOS and Windows.

A similar personal use-case that I have is syncing an old Polar heart rate monitor watch through a USB Infrared adapter. The Polar software only runs on Windows. The USB IrDA drivers are installed on both the host (in this case a Macbook Pro) and the Windows 10 VM. Whenever I want to sync the Polar watch with the Polar software on the Windows VM, I simply connect the USB IrDA device to the Windows VM.

You can replace the use-case above with USB WiFi for USB IrDA and WiFi network 2 for the watch.

I guess another way to test out the concept is to use something like an iPhone through USB to connect to 3G/4G from the Windows VM and the MacOS host won't even have to be connected to the same 3G/4G network as the Windows VM.

[dcobb013]

Thanks of for the idea of using another physical device - I may give that a try.

Pulling on the original string a bit though, is the basic idea theoretically sound?

• Today's bridged WiFi support requires the Mac host to have joined/authenticated a WLAN. Let's call that WiFi (Host)
  • Guest can choose (or not) to join that same WLAN, but no others - is that correct?
• Hypothetical WiFi configuration would allow guest to have independent option to join a different WLAN. Let's call that WiFi (Guest)
  • Part of initializing/configuring the Ethernet device in the guest would be whatever selection/authentication steps required to join the WLAN
  • could this be shoehorned in under the current "Intel Gigabit" virtual device, or would we need a new type of guest device that hooked in to the guest OS' WiFi framework more natively?

In case it's not obvious, I'm trying to have my fully IT compliant, locked down Win10 VM join a locked down corporate WLAN without requiring my BYOD physical Mac being required to join the locked down corporate WLAN.

[bluefirestorm]

Yes, with the bridged WiFi, the guest could chose not to join the host's network. So if the guest VM chose not to join host WiFi, effectively the virtual Intel Gigabit will not have network access; as that the virtual network card that is bridged to.

The USB WiFi dongle can be plugged in to the host and not configured to access the corporate network. In theory, it should appear as another USB device that the guest can connect to (just like USB hard disk, USB thumb drives, USB IrDA, etc). That is the part where maybe quirks with USB network device(s) may not appear as a connectable USB device for the Fusion guest VM.

I think Fusion does ask whether to Connect to Mac or Connect to Windows when you plug in a USB device and/or set to Connect to Windows always or Mac always.

Assuming the USB WiFi appear as a dongle that the Windows guest VM can connect to, then the regular WiFi configuration (SSID, etc) comes to play. And thus the host MacOS doesn't even have to be configured to access the corporate network.

[bluefirestorm]

Funny I used the word "quirks" and looks like VMware Fusion uses the term "quirks" in the Fusion VM vmx configuration file for certain USB devices.

Hope you don't have a need for this article

Troubleshooting USB devices using USB quirks in Fusion (1025256) | VMware KB

Doing a Google search of

USB WiFi on Fusion VM site:communities.vmware.com

You will see a bunch of 4-5 year old posts. So it looks like other people have done it before although some had some trouble (hence the posts).

So it looks like it should be do-able.