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soul_lucky
Contributor
Contributor

VMware NAT adapter doesn't work

Hello,

Host Hardware: Intel i7-8750H 6/12, 32 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, Killer E2500 Gigabit Ethernet Controller

Host OS: Win-10x64 Pro, Ver. 1909. Build 18363.1016. Fresh Re-Installed 1909 because I thought it will solve the problem, before was 2004 with July 2020 Update.

Soft: VMware WS Pro 15.5.6 build-16341506.

Network adapters: VMnet0 - Bridge. VMnet1 - NAT - 192.168.101.0/24. GW: 101.2, etc. Sure 100% it's configured properly.

Problem: Have two VMs (EVE-NG, Ubuntu 20.04). Both configured with VMnet1 - NAT adapter.

*** It is important to note that only this "NAT" adapter is using now and will be used. Please, don't suggest using the "Bridged" adapter - that is not my case. (Of course, everything works fine ONLY with Bridged adapter). Screenshots will be attached.***

IP Addresses:

Host: 192.168.101.1/24,

VM1 EVE: 192.168.101.4/24 (static ip),

VM2 Ubuntu: 192.168.101.20/24 (dhcp),

Gateway for VMs: 192.168.101.2/24

After boot Host is not able to ping both VMs. VMs are able to ping each other and have access to the internet. (Firewall rules are configured).

Temporary solution: 1) !!!_Reboot_!!! the PC;     2) Reboot (on/off) VMnet1 Adapter on Host;     3) Re-install Drivers through Device Manager;     4) Start capturing traffic with Wireshark (rly);

The tale ends, reality begins.

After !!!_Shutdown_!!!, boot PC the problem comes back. And "Oh s**t, here we go again."

Rest of attempts when I thought I found the nature of the problem:

1) Blamed on Windows Updates (most likely version so far). After upgrade to 2004 (20H1 build) first encountered this problem when I couldn't access the EVE's web interface.

- Recovered the system to the last restore point before Upgrade. But I noticed that the problem persisted. Even tried to recover much older recovery points. Same result, not working.

- Fresh-Installed 1909 Build. Without any updates. Installed all my programs and drivers. Everything works fine. After Windows Updates problem appears again.

- Checked "updates log", tried to delete all last updates and turned off windows defender. Fixed. YEEEAH. Haven't reached such success yet.

- After several days, without any Updates, problems appear again. NOOOO ;(((((

- The manipulations with the defender did not lead to anything. Still not working.

- Found updates that cannot be removed in any way, including a method with editing update files in notepad or via the command line.

2) Attempt to restore default Network settings via VMware WS (Temp solution).

3) Attempt to use default Host-only Adapter at least to get access to EVE Web Interface and Bridged adapter to internet access. It has the same problem as the NAT adapter.

4) Windows troubleshooter didn't help at all.

5) Didn't find anything related to blocked adapters by OS/Soft.

6) Double checked all services related to VMware. All of them working properly. Restarting any of them does not solve the problem.

Request logs, I will try to provide them as quickly as possible.

Please, help. ASAP.

Kind Regards

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4 Replies
soul_lucky
Contributor
Contributor

Comment #1 with attachments.

VMs IP configurations and ping output.

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RDPetruska
Leadership
Leadership

Well, by defaults the VMnet1 hub is attached to the Host-Only network, while the VMnet8 hub is attached to the NAT services.  Not sure how you would confuse the system up by changing those.  I would start by restoring defaults in the Virtual Network Editor, and verifying your VMs are configured to use NAT (rather than a custom VMnet1).

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soul_lucky
Contributor
Contributor

2) Attempt to restore default Network settings via VMware WS (Temp solution).

3) Attempt to use default Host-only Adapter at least to get access to EVE Web Interface and Bridged adapter to internet access. It has the same problem as the NAT adapter.

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dmellor
Contributor
Contributor

Spoiler
I might have come across a solution - I hope!

I'm running Windows 10 Pro (10.0.19041 Build 19041) with vmware workstation 16.0.0 build-16894299

I have been suffering this problem for ages. Sometimes its not a problem, but generally I need to use wireshark to 'kick' the VMnet8 interface into operation (ie prior to this I can't ping from my Windows PC to the virtual host no VMnet8 interface). To day it got a lot worse - my wireshark fix was just not doing it. So I started with using the vmware's "Virtual Network Editor" to Restore Default and reconfigured my interfaces appropriately with numerous reboot - no improvement. I then looked at the Windows "Network Connections" for the "VMware Network Adapter VMnet8" interface, I had configured this with a static IP address. But looking on the interface's Details it reported two IP addresses: a 169.x.x.x - failed DHCP - primary, and my static IP. Weird! What was setting this 169.x.x.x address? After much scratching my head I went back to the "Virtual Network Editor" and disabled the "Use local DHCP service to distribute IP address to VMs" (default enabled) - BINGO!
Having applied this my problems went away. I tried rebooting my PC a few time and restarting everything - so far it is stable.
Let's hope so!!!

Regards Derin

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