Client/Server VMs using Static IPs with Internet access

[Modify_inc]

I have created two VMs:

VM1 is running Windows Server 2008

VM2 is running W7.

The host machine is running W7 with VMware Workstation 11.

Both guest machines are using NAT and I have changed the VMnet8 to use 192.168.205.0

VM1 (Server) Static IP:

192.168.205.1

255.255.255.0

192.168.205.1 and tried without a gateway

192.168.205.1

VM2 (Client) Static IP:

192.168.205.101

255.255.255.0

192.168.205.1 and tried without a gateway

192.168.205.1

My desired end result is that both VMs have access to the internet and access to each other for testing a client/server environment.

It seems I can get them to network successfully, but no internet.

Also at some point I will assign the VM1 as a DHCP Server, but I'm worried that is will cause a conflict with the VMware's DHCP. Will I be able to disable the VMware's DHCP and use my VM1 (server) as the DHCP Server, and still have internet access?

Thank you

Mike

[rcporto]

First, about internet connection, you are able to resolve names from your VMs ? For example, you can ping www.vmware.com ?

And about the VM1 as DHCP, you can disable the VMware DHCP without problems, but just make sure configure the DHCP server scope with correct Default Gateway and DNS server, without this you cannot reach the internet.

[Modify_inc]

I can resolve names from each VM and I can ping each VM without issue. I even successfully joined the VM2 (W7 Client) to the domain on VM1 (Server).

I was having a few issues where when I would ping the server, I would get replies from a foreign IP of 208.69.32.145 which I found to resolve to hit-nxdomain.dlinksearch.com.

I have a DLink router so I assume that is where that was coming from, but why, I have no idea.

A lot of my troubles came from having the binding orders of my two Virtual NICs in the wrong order.

NIC1 (Internal) was suppose to be first, while NIC2 (NAT) was to be 2nd. So after changing them around I noticed things that I couldn't get to work previously, like the Cache Lookup in the DNS Server would not update even after visiting different websites on the server, but now they do.

But now I have a new problem!

Anything that I ping from the server that the server's DNS cant resolve, even completely random characters & numbers, will show as successfully pinged from the 208.69.32.145 address.

Why is that IP resolving anything and everything that my DNS server is unaware of, even made up crap like sdasdasa1233214 as you can see in the image below?

Any suggestions?

Thank you

Mike