Cannot Connect to VM from Second Computer

[Univibe65]

I am running VMW workstation v 2.05 build 109488 on a Windows Vista Ultimate workstation

The VM is Win2k server and working fine

The VM network is set to NAT

The Vista desktop can connect to the VM without any problems; ie can ping it, using IE can access IIS apps hosted by the VM

On my home LAN I also have a Win XP workstation.

The XP machine can connect to the VIsta machine as above including running Remote Desktop.

Using IE on the XP machine I need to access IIS apps running on the VM

However the the XP machine cannot see the VM; can't even ping it.

Is a connection between the XP machine and the VM possible?

Thanks

[asatoran]

...The VM network is set to NAT

NAT is blocking you. The Vista host can connect because it's on the same side of the NAT as your VM. Everything else, is on the "other side." Changed your networking to bridged so that the VM is on the LAN just like any other machine.

[Univibe65]

Under VM Device\Ethernet I changed to Bridged but now the VM IPconfig is showing an autoconfiguration IP address indicating it is not associated with any LAN:

Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.79.170

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0

where the host IPConfig shows

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::501e:620:7906:5d49%9

IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.198

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

Are changes required elsewhere to enable Bridging?

[asatoran]

The 169 IP address indicates that Windows was not able to obtain an IP address from the DHCP server. Try turning off the firewall on the Vista host. I'm assuming the DHCP server is a hardware box at 192.168.0.1. And that ythe Vista IP address of 192.168.0.198 is not a manually entered static IP address.

[Univibe65]

Thanks very much for your reply. You are right on all items you mention.

When I disable the FW on the Vista host the VM can now be seen by other machines on the local LAN

2 problems remain:

-The Vista host FW is set to consider 192.168.0 a trusted zone and allow sharing; wouldn't this include assigning DHCP?

-From the Vista host I can launch IE and browse a web application hosted by the VM; although it prompts for a VM Windows login From a second machine on the local LAN I cannot; it just times out saying 'web page cannot be displayed'

I can successfully ping the VM from this machine.

[asatoran]

-The Vista host FW is set to consider 192.168.0 a trusted zone and allow sharing; wouldn't this include assigning DHCP?

I don't know the full technical answer to that. I suspect that Microsoft really wasn't thinking about virtualization and the bridging protocol when they were developing this part of Vista. I suspect they were only considering a "typical user" point of view, sharing his files on his local C: drive, and not the connectivity of anything beyond the host OS.

-From the Vista host I can launch IE and browse a web application hosted by the VM; although it prompts for a VM Windows login From a second machine on the local LAN I cannot; it just times out saying 'web page cannot be displayed'

I can successfully ping the VM from this machine.

Are you pinging and browsing by name or IP address? If by IP works for both PING and IE, but by name does not, then that's a DNS issue. You need to either configure your DNS server or add entries to the workstations hosts file.

[Univibe65]

I'll ask the FW folks about the first item

I am pinging and browsing by IP adddress. Ping works but browsing does not.

I also tried Telnet to port 25 as the VM has email running. I can connect from the Vista host but it just hangs from the 2nd machine.

I have been testing with the Firewalls down on both machines.

[Univibe65]

duplicate

[asatoran]

I don't normally use a Vista host, so I don't have a reference machine to compare with. I'll have to try when I get home but I'm not sure if the issue is a Vista & Player issue or not.

BTW, I noticed from your first post you said you were using workstation v2.05 109488. I'm assuming your really mean Player v2.05 109488. You probably should consider updating to Player 2.5.

[Univibe65]

That was a typo, I am running VMWare Player. I have since download and installed vs 2.5 but it did not help.

Does anything need to modified with VMNetcfg.exe

I have VMWare Player installed on the remote PC that is trying to connect although it does not have a VM running. Would this be an issue?

[Univibe65]

Hi

I wonder if you have had a chance to look further into my problem? I

believe I have all my setting correct and tried a variety of other tweaks

but nothing seems to be working. I also loaded the VM on the XP machine and

tried connecting from the Vista machine but had the same results. With

either machine acting as the remote/host I can ping the VM but cannot access

any resources ie mapping a drive or browsing HTTP.

Thanks again

Chris

[Univibe65]

One other piece of info: From a command prompt if I Telnet to the VM on port

80 I don't get an error, the screen just goes blank indicating (I think) I

am in a Telnet session. I then have to break out of it to get back to the

command line. If I telnet to a bogus port ie 300 I get a hard error message

"could not open connection to host on port 500 etc'.

So it looks like maybe I am accessing the port but the responses are not

returned? Again all the firewalls are down.

[asatoran]

I did power up my Vista host. I don't have a Windows server OS VM on there and I didn't have a chance to copy one over. (Limited HD space on host.) I was able to power up a XP guest and enable file sharing.

My gut feeling is that if you can PING the guest and you can browse to some file/print shares, then the VMWare part of things is working. Especially if you say the same happens on a XP host. If the VM you're running on the XP host is a copy of the Vista one, then check the IIS settings carefully. Or create a new VM on the XP host. But if the problem is a setting, then watch yourself carefully to make sure you don't make the same wrong setting again on the new VM.

If I get home at a reasonable hour tonight, I'll try to run a copy of my Win2k3 server VM on the Vista host. In the meantime, perhaps someone else with a Vista host can provide more insight.

BTW, are you running the VM from a username with administrative privileges and do you have UAC disabled? (I am on my Vista host.)

[Univibe65]

From the XP machine I can ping the guest but I cannot browse to any

resources. Note that I also tried reversing the machines hosting the same VM

on the XP machine and trying to connect from the Vista machine and had same

results. I also tried a second Win2K VM with same results.

[asatoran]

IIRC, there weren't that many people reporting problems with Player on XP hosts. So the fact that you can't get to any resources on a VM on the XP host leads me to believe that the problem is in the VM. You say this is the same VM as on the Vista host. Standard troubleshooting concepts say that the problem followed the VM when you moved it so the problem is in the VM. Thus my recommendation for you to build a new VM or at least check your IIS settings carefully. You tried a second Win2k VM "with the same results." So the question is did that VM ever work before? If not, then again, check your IIS settings to make sure you're not making the same mistakes in both VMs. (For that matter, you should be able to telnet from the VM to the VM itself.)

Is you desktop on wired ethernet or wireless? Many wireless access points don't like the bridging on the wireless NIC.

[Univibe65]

The machines are wired; the wireless NICs are disabled

UAC is disabled on the Vista machine

The guest Vista machine (hosting the VM) can connect fine to the VM; it can

map drives and browse the VM IIS.

The remote XP machine which is on the same subnet as the Vista machine and

VM can ping it but cannot map/browse.

It appears that something is blocking any connections other than ICMP

between the VM and the non-host machine

The VM has no Firewall and I have dropped both the XP and Vista FWs during

testing.

Note that DHCP is generated by the Linksys router; the VM is getting an IP

address no problem

I have been trying to enable disable services to see what could be causing

the problem without any luck.

[asatoran]

The machines are wired; the wireless NICs are disabled. UAC is disabled on the Vista machine

Good. This makes it much simpler.

The guest Vista machine (hosting the VM) can connect fine to the VM; it can map drives and browse the VM IIS.

FYI: The OS that is running on the physical machine is the host OS. What's in the virtual machine is the guest OS.

The remote XP machine which is on the same subnet as the Vista machine and VM can ping it but cannot map/browse. It appears that something is blocking any connections other than ICMP between the VM and the non-host machine

What about the host XP machine that you mentioned in your last post? If you run a VM on the XP host, can you access the VM's services (i.e.: IIS) from the host XP machine to the VM running on the that host XP machine? (Not a VM running on the Vista host.) The point is to confirm if the problem is with Vista as a host or in the VM itself. People have reported many more problems (in general) with Vista as a host than with 2000/XP as a host.

[Univibe65]

Yes when I use XP as the host machine I can access the XP VM's services but

I can do the same thing from Vista- access the VM's services from the Vista

host OS. But whether Vista or XP is the remote machine, neither can access

the VM's services (IIS, mapping etc)

>>It appears that something is blocking any connections other than ICMP

between the VM and the non-host machine

Exactly

The VM Ethernet is set to Bridged, the host OS LAN Adapter have the VM

Bridge Protocol enabled with it disabled on the host VM Network Adapters,

and firewalls are down. The non-host can ping and even see the VM machine

name in the Explorer tree; but when you try to select it in the tree it just

times out.

[Univibe65]

I am also able to map a drive on the VM to the non-host XP machine ie the VM

guest OS has drive V: mapped to the XP drive C:

[Univibe65]

I found the problem. It was a Checkpoint VPN client that my company had been

using at one time. While the VPN was not enabled, its protocol was bound to

the LAN adapter and was doing some insidious packet filtering. I uninstalled

the VPN and now can browse/map drives from the remote XP machine to the VM

guest OS.

Thank you so much for your help!