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gam69mag
Contributor
Contributor

Solution: Windows 2008R2 VM boot – NO Network connectivity issues / VMXNET3 / NPCAP Packet Driver

We had a strange issue when a VM was rebooted, it would boot up with no network connectivity. This happened irrespective of whether the VMXNET3 or E1000 driver was used. Removing / re-installing VMware tools did not help. Trying different version of vmware tools did not help. Disabling Firewall also did not help. Even did numerous registry changes related to TCPIP and the NICs with no success. It was also not NLA (Network Location awareness)

We would then have to disconnect/reconnect the NIC interact from vCenter / ESXi on the actual VM itself.

The cause of the issue was related to NPCAP version 0.9989 that was installed by Wireshark version 3.2.3 64-bit and any Wireshark that utilised that specific version of NPCAP.

To Fix you can either deselect the “Npcap Packet Driver (NPCAP)” on the interface properties and then reboot the host, or you can un-install wireshark / npcap and then install the new version, in this case it was 3.4.0. We have tested upgrading wireshark as well and it does upgrade Npcap as well...and as usual also verify that it is upgraded npcap driver and remove old npcap driver if present..

 

So the error being reported was:

Connect to Public Network and not to the Domain network

not connected - no connections are available

No Connections are available

you are currently not connected to any networks

 

Windows Network Diagnostics Publisher details

=======================================

Issues found

The "Local Area Connection" adapter is not working properlyThe "Local Area Connection" adapter is not working properly Detected Detected

The "Local Area Connection" is experiencing driver or hardware related problems Completed

 

 

Issues found Detection details

 

6 The "Local Area Connection" adapter is not working properly Detected Detected

 

The "Local Area Connection" is experiencing driver or hardware related problems Completed

 

Windows Help and Support can provide more information about resolving driver or hardware issues.

 

 

Detection details Expand

 

InformationalDiagnostics Information (Network Adapter)

Details about network adapter diagnosis:

 

Network adapter Local Area Connection driver information:

 

   Description . . . . . . . . . . : vmxnet3 Ethernet Adapter

   Manufacturer  . . . . . . . . . : VMware, Inc.

   Provider  . . . . . . . . . . . : VMware, Inc.

   Version   . . . . . . . . . . . : 1.8.16.0

   Inf File Name . . . . . . . . . : C:\Windows\INF\oem2.inf

   Inf File Date . . . . . . . . . : Monday, August 10, 2020  5:49:44 AM

   Section Name  . . . . . . . . . : vmxnet3.ndis620.x64.ndi

   Hardware ID . . . . . . . . . . : pci\ven_15ad&dev_07b0

   Instance Status Flags . . . . . : 0x180600a

   Device Manager Status Code  . . : 0

   IfType  . . . . . . . . . . . . : 6

   Physical Media Type . . . . . . : 14

 

 

IP Config reports no IP address configured although it is configured on the NIC.

Route Print returns the following:

IPv4 Route Table

===========================================================================

Active Routes:

Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric

        127.0.0.0        255.0.0.0         On-link         127.0.0.1    306

        127.0.0.1  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306

  127.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306

        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link         127.0.0.1    306

  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306

===========================================================================

Persistent Routes:

  Network Address          Netmask  Gateway Address  Metric

          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0       172.25.6.1       1

===========================================================================

Labels (2)
1 Reply
nachogonzalez
Commander
Commander

Nice, thanks!

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