I've tried to follow all that has been done, which has left my head spinning. Perhaps things may have become overly complicated.
There is one important check that appears to be missing that would help, namely when making all the various changes to VMware settings . . . what is the IP, default router and subnet that is being allocated to the Ubuntu guest VM. This should be [cleared if required and] checked whenever a change is made. Also, is the guest VM network NATed or fixed, and what can be pinged and what does a traceroute look like.
Post Edit: Does the issue you are encountering effect VMs setup with NAT Virtual Network Adapter or just the ones configured as 'Bridged' ?
I would also suggest putting VMnet0 back to the 'factory default' configuration, so that you go back to a known steady state.
As an aside, I notice from the Ubuntu guest VM screen capture, that the proxy is set to manual, what is the configuration ?
