Upgrade vm to 6.5 : bridged dhcp not working any more

[mesa57]

I have a older VM machine version 5 with windows xp sp3 on it.

Using vm workstation 6.5 I upgraded the VM to 6.5.

From that moment the virtual nic is not able to get an ip adress from the router on the host

to where it is connected via network bridge.

If I set a fixed IP adres (within the host subnet range) everything is working fine,

so my conclusion was that dhcp requests somehow fail.

Downgrading the vm to version 5 again fixes things. Dhcp is working again.

Has anyone a clue how I could fix this ?

[mesa57]

Correction / Addition : when I downgrade to version 5 I see that the interface uses a fixed IP address.

That is also working under version 6.5.

Keeps the question why dhcp is not working on this guest. On other guests it does.

[golddiggie]

Are you running WS 6.5.3 or straight 6.5?

Have you tried hard coding the DNS and gateway addresses on the VM, letting it grab the rest from DHCP?

Make/model of the router you're using (more curious than anything else)? When was the last time you cleared the DHCP client listing on the router?

Are you using a workgroup or do you have an actual domain in place?

What OS are the other guests running?

VMware VCP4

Consider awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers.

[AWo]

Run out of free DHCP addresses?

DHCP reservation needed (and maybe in place for the other guests)?

AWo

VCP 3 & 4

Author @ vmwire.net

\[:o]===\[o:]

=Would you like to have this posting as a ringtone on your cell phone?=

=Send "Posting" to 911 for only $999999,99!=

[golddiggie · Accepted solution]

Nope, we have to GUESS why he had it with a fixed IP before... I swear, so many 'issues' would be self resolved if people actually took time to learn what they're doing. OR the age old RTFM before doing something.

We also don't know if this is a home setting, or at a company. Completely different set of issues can happen in both.

VMware VCP4

Consider awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers.

[mesa57]

To answer the questions :

I am running ws 6.5.0.

"Have you tried hard coding the DNS and gateway addresses on the VM, letting it grab the rest from DHCP?" -

It is not possible to just code the gateway address without specifying an IP address. Setting "obtain IP automatic" but DNS server on a fixed address gave the same problem : no connection.

Other guests are running windows XP (pro), Windows 2000, Windows 7

The router is a netgear wndr3700 connected via a 3com switch to the hosts Realtek Gbe nic.

I did a reset of the router as part of troubleshooting this problem.

The guest is running in the same workgroup as the host (not in a domain).

I do not think the router is running out of dhcp reservation as only 4 machines (including the guest) where connected to the router.

There are not dhcp reservations made.

"Nope, we have to GUESS why he had it with a fixed IP before... " - Before upgrading the guest to 6.5 the IP

was indeed fixed. On upgrading to 6.5 apparently the vnic gets re-installed with default "get IP automatic".

And as a result no connection. Downgrading to version 5 lead to reappearing the old nic with its static IP address.

[mesa57]

Ok, guys (and girls ?).

Just found it. It was a weird firewall rule. Deleting it helpt.

First time in my life I ever seen a firewall rule preventing dhcp to function.

With the fixed IP all network traffic was passing thru the firewall ....

Beats me ... But thank you very much for thinking allong with me and for you're posts.

[golddiggie]

"Have you tried hard coding the DNS and gateway addresses on the VM, letting it grab the rest from DHCP?" -

It is not possible to just code the gateway address without specifying an IP address. Setting "obtain IP automatic" but DNS server on a fixed address gave the same problem : no connection.

Actually, you CAN set just the DNS and gateway addresses and still allow the system to grab the IP through DHCP. Use the advanced TCP/IP settings (still available under Windows 7 even). I'm actually using that right now.

For the other router questions, it could have the MAC address of the system, from when it was under WS 5, still in it's tables, preventing what it considers a different system from connecting.

It could also be something fixed with 6.5.3. Since you're only at 6.5.0 and took care of the firewall rule we'll probably never know...

BTW, any time a system is behind a hardware firewall, I completely KILL the Microsoft firewalls. I've seen software firewalls cause far too many issues to either allow them, or allow them without reducing them down to almost nothing (making one wonder why having it enabled at all)...

VMware VCP4

Consider awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers.