Questions on Shared VMs

[thetrueblue32]

Hi,

I hope you are all well.

If a host PC of 10 shared VMs had a static wired internet connection (which would provide the IP address used for sharing) but also had several internet dongles attached to it (to provide roving IP addresses). Would it be possible to connect to the virtual machine and then connect to one of these internet dongles so not to use the host IP?

Regards,

TB

[Parveen1988]

Hi,

If I understood this correctly, you want to provide an IP address to your VM by directly connecting it to a physical nic.

Its not possible in my opinion. You may however can connect the dongle to your Host and then use VMware to provide a IP address to the VM, which if connected correctly, should be able to get an IP, just similar to having two physical nics on the host.

[thetrueblue32]

Hey!

Thanks for your response - much appreciated. Would you be able to elaborate and expand on what you mean by your suggestion? How would I do it? Would it provide the same results as I hoped for (I.E. the virtual machine showing the IP address of the Dongle)?

Thanks once more!

TB

[Parveen1988]

No worries,

The steps are below:

1. Connect Dongle to Host->Open CMD and type ipconfig- >Make sure you get an IP address here from the Dongle.

2. Now on the Workstation->Shutdown VM->Take a Backup or Snapshot. (Test it one VM).

3. Go to Virtual Network Editor->Change Settings->Add->Let's say you set new Network Adapter to VMnet2->Set it to Bridged->Make Sure you select the correct physical Nic under "Bridged To" settings.

4. Now Select your VM->Settings->Add Network Adapter->Ok, Change the Network Connection to VMnet2.

5. Power on your VM, go to cmd->ipconfig->If set upwas correct, then your VM, must show two ethernet connection IP addresses, one static, and other Dynamic coming from your Dongle.

6. Similarly, use step 4-5 only for having the same set-up for other VMs, because step 3 is universal for all VMs in the Workstation and need not to be repeated.

This should resolve your issue. Let me know.

[Parveen1988]

Step 3 is important-Especially when you set "Bridged to"- Make sure you select the Dongle Hardware here.

[pwolf]

If I understand your question correctly, you are trying to connect a shared virtual machine to an Internet dongle on the host.

If this dongle is an USB dongle you can easily connect that dongle USB-device to the VM and configure the dongle inside the VM as if it was natively connected to the VM. Of course this connection is then not available to the host OS.

If this Dongle is a WAN-card and no USB device, things get complicated. The problem is, that most ISPs and their equipment will not allow more than one IP-address per device. So the usual VMware bridging will definitively not work. Furthermore there is no virtual WAN adapter available, so the VM is not able to connect natively to a bridged WAN adapter - even if you do not bind any network protocol to this adapter on the host . In my opinion this situation only allows a natted connection for the VMs as PCI passthrough is not supported an VMware Workstation.

HTH

[Parveen1988]

Hi,

Thanks for the clarification. Yes, indeed Dongle wouldn't work in Bridging mode as that would mean that dongle would become a network in itself and can cater to multiple VMs, which is not true for most dongles.

If you are using a Hot-Spot though, then story would be different as that would use the inbuilt Wi-Fi adapter of the Host and my above method would stand true.

Now, to cater your need to provide internet in multiple VMs using a Dongle, there is a slight change in Step 3:

Go to Virtual Network Editor->Change Settings->Add->Let's say you set new Network Adapter to VMnet2->Set it to NAT-> .

Test this out, should work.