Understanding Networking in VMware Fusion

[#1]

How does networking inside a virtual machine work?

Your VMware Fusion virtual machines talk to your network using a virtual network adapter. Inside your virtual machine, the guest operating system (Windows, Linux, etc.) believes that it is equipped with an ordinary (wired) Ethernet card. But Fusion patches this card to your Mac's regular network connection, regardless of whether it is wireless or wired.

What choices do I have for how my virtual machine connects?

Using Fusion's Virtual Machine menu, you can choose among bridged mode, NAT mode, and host-only mode. NAT mode is the default.

What do these choices mean, and how do I choose the right one for me?

We'll examine each of these network modes in turn.

What is bridged mode?

Your home or office network is probably equipped with a router for talking to the Internet. Bridging is a network term that describes extending a network without using a router. When you place your virtual machine's virtual network adapter into bridged mode, your local wired or wireless network is effectively extended to your virtual machine. Your virtual machine becomes a peer of all the other computers on that network.

Although your virtual machine will connect to your local network using the same hardware your Mac uses, the virtual machine will retain its own fully independent network identity. Mac OS's networking features cannot tell the difference between your virtual machine and a PC on your local network; Mac OS interacts with them over the network in exactly the same way.

Many users' Macs get their IP address from their wireless base station or router, using a piece of software built into those devices called a DHCP server. In bridged mode, if the operating system inside your virtual machine (Windows, Linux, etc.) is configured to request an IP address from a DHCP server, your virtual machine will get its IP address from the same DHCP server your Mac uses.

What is NAT mode?

NAT is a network technology that protects one network from another. For example, your router probably also acts as a firewall: it protects your Mac by preventing unknown computers on the Internet from connecting directly to it. The term "NAT" is an abbreviation for "Network Address Translation"; the protection afforded by a firewall works (in part) by the router representing your Mac on the Internet. Your router substitutes its own address for your Mac's.

VMware Fusion's NAT mode is the same technology, but one layer closer to you. NAT mode protects your virtual machine from the other computers around it by placing the virtual machine on an isolated virtual network. Whenever your virtual machine wants to communicate with your office network or the Internet, it does so through a software firewall. This firewall is a component of VMware Fusion that runs inside Mac OS.

Notice that, in this situation, your virtual machine is not on the same network as your Mac and your router. Compare this to the diagram of bridged mode, in which your virtual machine is a peer of your Mac and your router.

In NAT mode, your virtual machine will get its IP address from a DHCP server supplied by VMware Fusion that runs in Mac OS, just as the firewall does. But this IP address will only be used for relaying communication between your virtual machine and the software firewall; that firewall will represent your virtual machine for its network communication with the outside world. Another way to think about this: from the Internet's perspective, your virtual machine is sharing your Mac's IP address.

What is host-only mode?

In host-only mode, your virtual machine is not only protected from your local network and the Internet, but also locked out of them. The virtual machine's network world is wholly within your Mac.

Just as in NAT mode, your virtual machine will get its IP address from a DHCP server supplied by VMware Fusion that runs in Mac OS.

How do I choose the right network mode for me?

The right network mode for your virtual machine depends on how you plan to use it. In an office or home-office environment, with network printers and file sharing, bridged mode is probably best, particularly because bridged mode allows your virtual machine to use Apple's Bonjour technology for finding printers. Windows's workgroup features need bridged mode; only in bridged mode will a Windows virtual machine's Network Neighborhood show the other PCs on your local network.

NAT mode is ideal when you want your virtual machine to be protected from other computers on your local network, such as when you are using a public wireless connection. Because, in NAT mode, your virtual machine shares your Mac's IP address for purposes of external communication, it's especially ideal for use when you are using a paid wireless service, such as in a coffeehouse or hotel. The use of bridged mode would require you to pay twice: once for your Mac and once for your virtual machine.

Host-only mode is useful for environments where your Mac has no network connection at all, or when you wish your virtual machine to be completely isolated from the rest of the Internet.

That's a lot of choices. How do I keep them all straight in my head?

Here's a way to think about the network choices:

Mode	Nickname
Bridged	Home-office mode
NAT	Starbucks mode
Host-only	Airplane mode

Can I change from one mode to another?

Yes! But, unless you have configured your virtual machine to use fixed IP addresses, you must tell the operating system inside your virtual machine to release and renew its IP address. Renewing your IP address after you change network modes will automatically contact the correct DHCP server: the one on your local network if you changed to bridged mode, and the one provided by VMware Fusion if you changed to NAT or host-only mode.

To release and renew IP addresses within Windows, open a command prompt using Start -> Run -> cmd . Then, in the command-prompt window, give first this command:

ipconfig/release

then this command:

ipconfig/renew

Rebooting the virtual machine will also cause it to obtain a fresh IP address.

Can you give me some troubleshooting tips?

Versions of VMware Fusion earlier than 1.1.1 may give an unreliable network connection to virtual machines in bridged mode when their host Mac connects wirelessly to the local network. Version 2 is a free upgrade for all 1.x customers. Download it from http://www.vmware.com/download/fusion/

If your virtual machine cannot use the network, make sure its virtual network adapter is connected. Check Fusion's Virtual Machine -> Network submenu, and ensure that Connected is selected.

If your virtual network adapter is in NAT or host-only mode, be sure that the operating system is configured to use dynamically assigned IP addresses (that is, from a DHCP server). For Windows, use Start -> Control Panel -> Network Connections, and open the Properties dialogue of your network connection. Edit the Internet protocol properties to ensure that it gets a dynamically assigned IP address and DNS server.

Click on this image to zoom in:

[nospamboz]

Simple and informative. Can't ask for more.

[Obeechi]

This is great - put enough things like this together and you could make an encyclopedia of virtualization for the mac for dimwits like me. I'd buy it. It could be a collective effort.

[Vincent_G]

Thank you for these very clear explanations...

However, I would appreciate to know if the VMWare firewall can be modified under NAT mode, for example to open other ports than 80

Thank you in advance.

[weymuller]

Great documentation.

I can see my host Mac when I'm in the VM (running Vista), but I cannot see the other machines on our home network...suggestions?

[weymuller]

I have my network set to 'bridged'

[#7]

Hi, Vincent. Sorry for the delay in replying; I overlooked your comment somehow.

Yes, the firewall can be modified. By default, all outbound ports are open, and no inbound port-forwarding occurs. But you can allow inbound port-forwarding by editing the file "/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmnet8/nat.conf".

The general format of port-forwarding entries in this file is outsideport = ipaddress:insideport. You'll find two sections, one headed and the other headed .

For example, if your virtual machine's IP address in NAT mode is 172.16.226.128, and you want to forward the external TCP port 8888 to TCP port 80 on the VM, you'd add an entry like this to the section:

8888 = 172.16.226.128:80

(Note: you won't be able to forward external port 80 if your Mac has already bound something to that port, such as Personal Web Services.)

Anyway, any time you change nat.conf, you have to restart Fusion's NAT service, like so:

sudo /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/boot.sh --restart

[#8]

Ooops, the forum software mangled that post a little. The section headers "incomingtcp" and "incomingudp" in the nat.conf file have square brackets around their names. But the forum software turns words wrapped in square brackets into some kind of crazy link reference. So don't bother clicking on the blue links above; they do nothing.

[#9]

Perhaps the other machines on your home network have not been configured for file sharing. Windows requires that you enable file sharing. See this discussion thread:

http://communities.vmware.com/message/861489

[fmlogue]

I am having problems connecting to our LAN from Fusion running XP. The LAN uses Netbeui. I am able to connect OK when I boot into bootcamp, but I cannot see the server or the other windows machines when I am using Fusion, except once, but I don't know what I did to make it work that time. I don't know if it was something I did, or if it just happened, but when I booted into bootcamp to make sure I still could run our Visual Foxpro database program off our serve there, and then rebooted into Leopard and started Fusion, again I was unable to connect to our LAN. Since I know it is possible, I would like to find out how to make it work reliably every time. Thanks for any suggestions. By the way, I have Bridged selected and have modified the boot.sh file following a suggestion to make Fusion use the ethernet connection and not the Airport connection to:

1. vmnet-bridge puts itself in background (daemon mode)

Bridge to host network interface 'en0'.

#"$LIBDIR/vmnet-bridge" -d /var/run/vmnet-bridge-vmnet0.pid vmnet0 en0

1. Bridge to the primary host network interface (which can change over time).

1. "$LIBDIR/vmnet-bridge" -d /var/run/vmnet-bridge-vmnet0.pid vmnet0 ''

At first I thought my modification was what made the connection work, but I guess not, and even changing it back and forth made no difference. Unless, of course, I inadvertently modified the file and therefore broke it.

[fmlogue]

After a shutdown and reboot I am now getting the error message that "network bridge on device /dev/vmnet0 is not running." and the statusbar icon says that no cable is connected which is definitely not true. What's up with that? How can I get vmnet0 running and connect to my LAN. Confusingly I seem to be able to connect to the shared folders on the host computer whether I choose Host or Bridge. Host I can choose, Bridge will not let me connect, but the shared folders and printers show up either way! ???

[Imtiaz_latif]

Hello bro,

I follow your instructions. Still now I am not able to build the network successfully between windows Server 2003 Enterprise edition and windows XP professional.

Regards,

Imtiaz

[#13]

Hi, fmlogue. I'm concerned about that edit you made to boot.sh. Under normal circumstances, users should not have to edit this file. The only reason you would need to edit this file would be if you sometimes had both your Ethernet connection and your Airport connection in use at the same time. That'd be fairly unusual. Most people use one or the other at any time. Even in bridged mode, Fusion will use whichever is active.

If the edit above really reflects what your boot.sh file looks like, you have a problem. One of the two statements that begins with "$LIBDIR/vmnet-bridge" must lack a hash mark ("#"). (The purpose of a hash mark in these script files is to make a statement ignored.) As things stand, the portion of Fusion that performs network bridging is not running. That would explain the "network bridge on device /dev/vmnet0 is not running" error message.

I suggest that you make sure that one of these lines lacks a preceding hash mark. Unless your Airport and your Ethernet are typically both connected at the same time, the correct line from which to remove the hash mark would be the second one, the one that ends with two single quotes. Then either run the script with "sudo ./boot.sh --restart" or just reboot your Mac.

Once you get your network connection back, first troubleshoot inside your virtual machine with other network resources. Can you view Web pages? If so, you know that Fusion is correctly networking to the outside world. Your next step is to get the copy of Windows XP inside your virtual machine to view the Netbeui resources successfully.

[#14]

You wrote "Confusingly I seem to be able to connect to the shared folders on the host computer whether I choose Host or Bridge." VMware Shared Folders does not rely on your virtual machine's network connection. It's a different path from your VM to the host Mac.

[#15]

Hey, Imtiaz, I suggest that you post a description of the problem in the discussions area of this forum. That way, more people will see it and be able to help. Be sure to say which version of Windows you have running inside your virtual machine and which kind is the server. Also be sure to say whether you're just relying on Network Neighborhood browsing to work, or if you're trying network paths (such as
server\share).

[fmlogue]

Well, I guess my circumstances are unusual, I have my wired ethernet cable plugged into our LAN and I am connected to the internet via airport on Leopard, so I thought Fusion was trying to connect to the LAN via Airport. Now I my boot.sh file is:

1. vmnet-bridge puts itself in background (daemon mode)

Bridge to host network interface 'en0'.

#"$LIBDIR/vmnet-bridge" -d /var/run/vmnet-bridge-vmnet0.pid vmnet0 en0

1. Bridge to the primary host network interface (which can change over time).

"$LIBDIR/vmnet-bridge" -d /var/run/vmnet-bridge-vmnet0.pid vmnet0 ''

Is this correct? Unfortunately I am still getting the error message that "network bridge on device /dev/vmnet0 is not running." Also, since I am not now art the store I will not be able to see if I can connect to our LAN, but I first have to fix this problem.

Maybe I inadvertently made some other change to the file. Is it possible to get a fresh and correct version of the file?

[fmlogue]

Well, I seem to have it working. I am able to connect to our NETBEUI LAN and run the VFP program off the server. I am not sure what I did that worked, but these are the things I

remembered I did. First, I had been using the Demo version of Fusion. I received my paid version and I entered the license code. Then when I started windows it decided that I was trying to run it on a new machine and refused to run. I tried to enable TCP/IP and connect to the net so I could reauthorize my copy of XP. When I finally achieved connecting to the MS server, it said that I had exceeded my alloted number of authorizations and refused to authorize. So I then called them via the telephone and after telling the voice mail voice that I was installing XP on one computer and had added hardware, they gave me a new number, which I then entered successfully. Then, not wanting or needing XP to connect to the internet, I disabled TCP/IP, I think, rather then uninstalling the service, I think. I am confused because I don't really understand Windows networking. But when I booted into XP, there were the other computers and the servers on my network neighborhood. I never tried booting into bootcamp because I was afraid I might mess up the connection, and anyway, with Fusion running successfully, I didn't need to. So for the time being, everything's kool. Now if I could only get my bluetooth keyboard and mighty mouse to work in Fusion and Leopard at the same time, I'd be in multi-platform heaven.

[rougene]

hi sir brian, i need some help about in vmware workstation. I do setup the two guest OS in vmware. The two guest Os i had i installed is Win2003 server and winxp client. My problem is now after installed i would like that my winxp client be connected to the win2003 server.I need some tips or information or instruction about this matter. Thank you so much.

im novice. im looking forward to your respond sir...

[ElGato01]

Brian/others,

I have a general question about VMWare Fusion. In short, does it provide the same functionality as VMWare Server? More specifically, can I run multiple virtual machines simultaneously, and can they be networked to one another? Further, if I can do the above, can I also network the host o/s (Mac O/S) to the virtualized network? I presently run VMWare Server on Win2003 host and have two virtual Win2k and WinXP clients. The servers are DNS/DHCP and the clients are for testing that services work. I'd like to replicate this but go further by integrating the Mac OSX into the network, as well as adding a virtual Linux client and getting them all on the same network. If I can do this I am buying a Mac tomorrow! The setup is for training skills and scenarios. Thanks.

[#20]

Hi ElGato,

As a note, this isn't really a good place to ask general questions - starting a discussion in the Fusion forums is better.

Fusion is not the same product as Server - there are things Fusion does that Server doesn't, and vice versa. However, both satisfy the requirements you specify - multiple virtual machines, and the host can talk to them. I think all our virtualization products can actually do this (the one I think is most likely to be questionable is Player/ACE).

[dlmariner]

I have a question about internet access? When I'm online with Fusion running Windows XP do I need to protect myself by using something like Norton Internet Security or are the Mac security benefits carried over to the virtual machine?

[#22]

You do need to run an antivirus product inside your Windows virtual machines. Although running a virtual machine in NAT mode does protect you against certain kinds of attacks launched from outside your home or office network, it isn't enough. For example, someone could email you an infected attachment regardless of which network mode your VM is in. So do choose and install an antivirus product.

[ElGato01]

Hi,

I'd like to elaborate on dimariner's question. I believe it is the case that

- you can configure the guest OS to access the internet but still be isolated from the host OS by virtue of being on a different virtual network

- if one doesn't run an anti-virus and the guest OS gets infected, the host is protected by virtue of not being on the same network

- by returning to a pre-infection snapshot you basically wipe out the virus

Am I misinformed about any of the above? I seem to recall reading that this is a way some antivirus researchers work, by letting virtual machines get infected and differencing between the snapshot registry and the infected registry, then wiping it out and starting over. This is an area of interest of mine and I was in fact hoping to put some of this to the test, but not if it risks a Windows host OS.

[#24]

Yes, all the assertions you make are at least partially true; but they don't add up to a reason why ordinary users should omit antivirus software in their Windows virtual machines.

NAT mode and host-only mode do indeed place the virtual machine on a different network (a virtual one) from the local LAN. Those modes protect the VM from attacks based that arrive from the outside world inside an IP datagram, because the VM isn't directly addressable. And they protect the VM from attacks that arrive inside a broadcast frame, because the VM is in a different broadcast domain. But there are other ways viruses and worms can propagate, many involving the accidental help of a human being.

The NAT firewall that Fusion and Workstation offer to VMs in NAT mode is unidirectional. The VM can connect out, even though other computers cannot connect in. This means, for example, that a virus in a VM could launch an attack on the host if it knew its IP address.

Yes, you can revert to a pre-infection snapshot; virus researchers do use virtual machines for just this purpose. But the entire state of the VM reverts, not just the part you want. When virus researchers use snapshots, they do so inside scratch virtual machines, not production virtual machines. They do not want to have to worry about reverting (to pick an extreme example) their Outlook mailboxes.

[douglasb]

Sorry if I reply twice, not sure it went through the first time.

I'm trying to edit nat.conf as you describe, but no matter what I do it says I don't have sufficient access rights. Can you advise how I can get the correct access rights? Thanks.

[fmlogue]

Hi, it's me again. I had my Fusion/Mac networking working fine until I upgraded to 1.1.2. I am obviously "fairly unusual" in that I connect to our Netbeui LAN via a wired ethernet connection and Use Airport when in Leopard to connect to the internet. We have our LAN and our Internet connection completely separate. All of our Windows machines have two ethernet cards installed, one connects to the broadband router, the other to our LAN. So I have been doing the same. I have the ethernet cable plugged into the LAN hub, and use Airport when in Leopard to connect to the internet. Windows XP in Fusion does not connect to the Internet and I have no interest in doing so. I have TCP/IP uninstalled in Windows Networking and Netbeui installed and working. I fixed the boot.sh file to make Fusion use the ethernet connection and not the Airport connection. This was working.

1. vmnet-bridge puts itself in background (daemon mode)

1. Bridge to host network interface 'en0'.

"$LIBDIR/vmnet-bridge" -d /var/run/vmnet-bridge-vmnet0.pid vmnet0 en0

1. Bridge to the primary host network interface (which can change over time).

#"$LIBDIR/vmnet-bridge" -d /var/run/vmnet-bridge-vmnet0.pid vmnet0 ''

;;

This was working until I upgraded to 1.1.2. Now, if I turn Airport on in Leopard, I lose the Netbeui connection to our LAN. When I turn Airport off from the Mac side, the LAN connection works. The only reason that this presents more than a minor nuisance is that I must disconnect from the LAN in XP before I turn Airport on, or the connected program hangs and I must 'end task' and shutdown XP and Fusion, and restart Fusion and XP and the Visual Foxpro program that connects to the Server and runs our business. Which means that I must exit the Visual Foxpro program before I can switch to the Mac and turn on Airport so I can connect to the Internet. Then I have to turn off Airport and restart the Visual Foxpro program. You understand that time it takes in restarting the Visual Foxpro program while I have a customer on the phone wanting to make an order is unacceptable. So either the upgrade broke something for me or I need to fiddle with my various network settings to find the combination that works. Since I don't have TCP/IP enabled in XP, There has to be a setting either in Fusion, or in the Mac network settings for the ethernet connection or the airport connection.

I hope I have made my problem clear and the reasons that I have to use this somewhat unusual setup. Any solutions or suggestions are welcome.

[#27]

Hi, douglasb. You need admin privilege to edit nat.conf. The easiest way to achieve this is to launch a Terminal session and edit the file using this command:

sudo nano -w "/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmnet8/nat.conf"

You'll be prompted for your own password. If your account has admin privilege, you'll be put into a simple onscreen text editor. There'll be a menu of the commands, showing, for instance, that you press ctrl-X ("^X") to exit.

[#28]

Hi, fmlogue. It is likely that the upgrade to 1.1.2 overwrote your edited boot.sh file with a stock vanilla boot.sh. You'll need to repeat your manual edit to that file. In fact, you'll need to do so every time you upgrade Fusion.

[douglasb]

I am on Fusion 1.1.2 on Leopard. Windows XP Professional is the guest OS. I moved to another town this week and changed internet service providers. When I plugged in my Mac and started Fusion, Windows complained that the internet connection was not working. I am using bridged networking because I use Cisco VPN and that was the only networking mode that I could get to work with Cisco. Now bridged networking does not work at all in Windows. When I switch to NAT, everything is fine except Cisco VPN doesn't work. Honestly, the only thing that was different after I moved was a change in ISP. No changes whatever in any setting on the Mac.

Does anyone know how to get Cisco VPN to work using NAT networking? I strongly suspect the problem is Fusion's virtual firewall, which apparently blocks all incoming access by default, but I can't prove it nor can I find much info on how to configure the firewall.

Or does anyone have a clue why bridged networking stopped working just by changing ISP?

Thanks.

[fmlogue]

That was it, although I thought I had made the change while trying to make it work.

[bencaleb]

First - If this isn't the right place to address this issue - please let me know. Next - I am accessing the internet using a wireless card from AT&T. I've followed what I believe to be the steps that need to be taken to let the VM OS reach the web - running in NAT mode, clearing and refreshing the IP config. For that I get nothing. Bridged mode works great on my home network, but NAT gets me nowhere when I'm operating away from home in NAT accessing the net on the wireless card. Host OS is OSx 10.4.11, and VM is XP. Certainly I'm not the only schmo to have this issue - though maybe the only who can't figure it out! Who can help?

[bencaleb]

(you can delete this duplicate message below - I just realized that I should've replied directly to you here - apologies) First - If this isn't the right place to address this issue - please let me know. Next - I am accessing the internet using a wireless card from AT&T. I've followed what I believe to be the steps that need to be taken to let the VM OS reach the web - running in NAT mode, clearing and refreshing the IP config. For that I get nothing. Bridged mode works great on my home network, but NAT gets me nowhere when I'm operating away from home in NAT accessing the net on the wireless card. Host OS is OSx 10.4.11, and VM is XP. Certainly I'm not the only schmo to have this issue - though maybe the only who can't figure it out! Who can help?

[o_0]

Hi there, I've followed brianriceca's instructions at the top of the comments to get an Apache2 server running on a Windows XP virtual machine in Fusion, but the same method will not work when I try it with an Ubuntu 7 virtual machine. I can access the Apache2 server running on Ubuntu by entering the virtual machine's IP in an internet browser address bar but when I try to use my actual IP as the address it won't connect. I've tried using NAT and Bridged modes with no success yet my Windows XP Apache still works fine. I'm wondering if there's any steps that I'm missing to reach the server from an outside network.

Thanks

[#34]

Hi, Ben! Sorry I did not see your question sooner. In general, a document's comment area is not as good a place to ask questions as the forum's main discussion area.

If your VM's networking works while it is in bridged mode but not while it's in NAT mode, chances are that Windows XP is set to use a fixed IP address. Fusion's NAT and host-only mode both assume that the guest operating system inside the VM is a DHCP client.

[#35]

Hi, o_0. Apache web servers (at least those running on Linux and Mac OS) make assumptions about name resolution. Specifically, they assume that the current system's hostname is a working DNS name. See this thread for more details: http://communities.vmware.com/message/861097

[o_0]

Thank you for your response, brianriceca. I'm not very good with this networking stuff at all but I've checked the internet settings on my Ubuntu vm and the DNS IP is the same as the one on my Windows XP virtual machine. I don't entirely understand the solution in that link, my difficulty is understanding the part that says "and also edit /etc/nsswitch.conf to ensure that the local hosts file is consulted for hostname lookup in addition to DNS and the many other supported name-services."... how would you edit this file?

[o_0]

Sorry, my problem was really something to do with my router firewall configuration. Thank you for your efforts.

[eduncan911]

WARNING: As of 7/1/2008, Fusion 1.1.3, and OS X 10.5.3 - NAT mode severely limits your upload speed to around 300kbps (30kB/s).

http://communities.vmware.com/message/984386#984386

Bridged mode seems to increase it, at a cost (see the thread above).

[mikelj]

First rule of documenting something - explain all the choices that are visible

What is the greyed out custom settings option there for ???

[#40]

Hi, eduncan911. That's not a hard-and-fast limit: for example, I just put a Fusion 1.1.3 VM into NAT mode, and I was able to upload to a local file server at 53 kilobytes per second. Nevertheless, there's a point well worth making: NAT mode requires more work than does bridged mode, because Fusion must inspect and rewrite each IP network packet ("datagram", to be technical about it).

One of the key improvements in Fusion 2, now in beta, is improved NAT performance (http://www.vmware.com/beta/fusion/releasenotes_fusion.html), and my own unscientific experimentation bears that out. When I repeat the experiment using Fusion 2, the performance gap between bridged and NAT is much smaller.

In the meantime, I do agree that, for users for whom network performance is the number-1 consideration, bridged mode is the best choice.

[#41]

Hi, mikelj. The "Custom Setting" choice is vestigial: Fusion's sister products Workstation and Server have an actual functioning "Custom Setting" choice in their user interfaces. But that's not a feature of the Fusion product. It is possible to achieve a custom network setting in Fusion through manual hacking of configuration files, as forum user DaveP has kindly documented (http://communities.vmware.com/message/718890), but not via the user interface.

I have never seen "Custom Setting" not grayed out. Perhaps it actually shows up when Fusion detects that you have done DaveP-style hacking, but I have never tried it myself.

Anyway, you could argue that "Custom Setting" ought to be deleted from the user interface, and I would find it difficult to disagree. This setting is absent from the current beta version of Fusion 2.

[mikelj]

Thanks for the reply - I think the greyed out setting is there when you install the product (Fusion 2 beta 1) but I could be wrong

I would say that Custom Setting actually should be there - and should be available to change the standard fusion network settings without the end user having to hack scripts. If this functionality just isn't possible, and I can't see why not, then I agree that it should be removed to avoid confusion..cheers

[mikelj]

sorry - ignore my first sentence - just reread your comment !

[PhiRum]

Thank you. Great detailed information. I cannot access the internet anymore. My network settings is connected, and on NAT. I can ping the router that the host iMac is wirelessly connected to...however if I try to ping something like www.yahoo.com it give me a message that it cannot locate it. The ipconfig reads a 192.168 like the router's...what do I still need to do? It used to work. Lately I did some adding and removing and organizing programs. Now it is not connecting to the internet. My local area connection status shows me connected a speed of 1Gbps. Help. Thank you.

[douglasb]

This might seem really basic and may not be your problem, but I struggled for a long time with connection issues until I simply unplugged my cable modem, waited a minute, and plugged it back in, so that the modem reset and obtained a new IP address. Then reboot at least Windows and better yet, the Mac too. Note that some cable modems have a battery backup (mine did), so you might have to remove the battery to make it reset.

[PhiRum]

Hi all, thanks douglasb for your feedback. I had started another thread and maddymac answered and I did what was suggested and it solved my internet connection challenge. I reinstalled fusion. I am finishing my webmaster certification and you all are welcome to ask me questions...rickyly.com

[Russtab]

Great document..thanks.

I have just bought a Mac Pro.

Want to span 2 networks..

MacOSX leopard 10.0.10.xx using interface adaptor en0

XP Pro 192.168.1.xx using interface adaptor en1

Using VMWare fusion..

Before suggestions like..use a router etc etc.

Want to use Gig capacity on en0 and en1

New to this VMWare product..

Can anyone advise strategy I should take.

Thanks,

Russ

[PhiRum]

Hi Russ, welcome. I sure would. However, I need to know what your goal is...feel free to email me...www.rickyly.com

[tlbuster]

I need very simple, point by point instructions in layman's terms please. I have a MacBook running Leopard and use VMFusion 2.0 to run MS Vista Home Premium. When I first installed the Vista software I immediately got on the network with no problems. Now that the connection has been restarted I cannot access any webpages unless I switch the connection to Bridged.

I am using a VPN in Mac OS and don't want to buy another license for Windows OS. I desire to use NAT. I checked to make sure that DHCP is set to automatic for Windows and still no connection. I have McAfee and Windows firewalls turned off.

Please let me know what settings I need in very simple bulleted steps. I need to protection of the VPN for all internet communications, so Bridged is not an option for me.

I thank you for your help and look forward to finding a solution.

ps. If the default setting in VMware is NAT and I got a connection fine, why don't I now?

[dagobert39]

I encountered a problem with my network recently. I am using VMware and Ubuntu as a host. Since a few days I can only the NAT option for my network. Whenever I try to use the BRIDGE or HOST ONLY option, nothing seems to work. I can't connect to the internet nor can I connect to other computers using wired network. Grateful for any help.

[begin5now]

I have a MacPro with dual NICs, can they be mapped individually to a VM in either bridge or NAT mode?