Cannot Change Network To Bridged There Are No Un Bridged? Top Answer Update

Yesterday I upgraded my computer from Windows 8 to 8.1. I have VMWare Workstation 10 on this computer running Windows XP and prior to the update I had no problems connecting to my network. However, since the update, I am unable to connect to a network and get the following error message:

The network bridge on device VMnet0 is not running. The first machine cannot communicate with the host or with other machines on your network. Virtual device Ethernet0 could not be connected

I have checked all my settings where my network adapter is currently set to a bridged connection and under device status it is checked as “connected”.

I’m not sure where to go from here, but after doing some research I saw that other users reported this error when updating the OS (any OS, not specifically Windows 8) of the host computer.

Windows 10 host, Ubuntu guest in VMware Workstation 15 player.

On my home network, I set the workstation’s network adapter to “bridged” and it automatically connects fine.

I can’t connect using a bridged connection on my work network, but as soon as I switch it to NAT it connects immediately.

I don’t have a very good understanding of networks, could some please explain why I’m seeing this behavior? Would it be possible to connect to my work network using a bridge connection as well?

My understanding is that the bridged connection should connect my WiFi PCIE from my host machine to the VM. However, would the guest still be assigned a unique IP by the router? In contrast, the NAT connection only assigns the same IP from the host to the guest computer.

I appreciate the help!

A network bridge connects two separate computer networks. The network bridge enables communication between the two networks and allows them to work as a single network. Bridges extend local area networks to cover a larger physical area than the LAN can reach. Bridges are similar – but smarter than – simple repeaters that also extend signal range.

How network bridges work

Bridge devices examine incoming network traffic and determine whether to forward or drop traffic according to its intended destination. For example, an Ethernet bridge examines each incoming Ethernet frame, including source and destination MAC addresses—and sometimes frame size—when processing individual forwarding decisions. Bridge devices operate at the data link layer of the OSI model.

Gorivero/CC-BY-SA-3.0/Wikimedia Commons

Types of network bridges

Bridge devices support Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi to Ethernet, and Bluetooth to Wi-Fi connections. Each is designed for a specific type of network.

Wireless bridges support Wi-Fi wireless access points.

Wi-Fi to Ethernet bridges allow connections to Ethernet clients and connect them to a local Wi-Fi network, useful for legacy network devices without Wi-Fi capability.

A Bluetooth to Wi-Fi bridge supports connections with mobile Bluetooth devices at home and in the office.

wireless bridging

Bridging is popular in Wi-Fi computer networks. In a Wi-Fi network, wireless bridging requires access points to communicate with each other in a special mode that supports the traffic flowing between them.

Jummie/Getty Images

Two access points that support wireless bridging mode work as a pair. Each continues to support its local network of connected clients while communicating with the other to handle bridging traffic.

Bridging mode is enabled on an access point through an administrative setting or a physical switch on the device.

Not all access points support wireless bridging mode. Consult the manufacturer’s documentation to determine if a model supports this feature.

Bridges vs Repeaters

Bridges and network repeaters have a similar physical appearance. Sometimes a single unit performs both functions. However, unlike bridges, repeaters do not perform traffic filtering and do not connect two networks together. Instead, repeaters forward the received traffic. The primary purpose of repeaters is to regenerate traffic signals to allow a single network to reach a large physical distance.

Bridges vs switches and routers

In wired computer networks, bridges perform a function similar to network switches. Traditionally, wired bridges support one inbound and one outbound network connection accessible through one hardware port, while switches typically offer four or more hardware ports. Because of this, switches are sometimes referred to as multiport bridges.

Bridges lack the intelligence of network routers. Bridges do not understand the concept of remote networks and cannot dynamically reroute messages to different locations, instead only supporting an external interface.

Some VMware Workstation Player and VMware Workstation Pro users are reporting that they are having a bridged network issue with all their guest machines. What happens is that none of their guest VMs can contact the host machine and the host machine cannot contact the guest machines. This problem reportedly occurs on Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10.

What causes problems with the VMware Bridged Network?

We investigated this particular issue by looking at various user reports and the repair strategies that are commonly used to fix this issue. Based on what we have gathered, there are several common scenarios that are known to lead to this issue:

Vmnetbridge.sys is faulty – As it turns out, this particular problem can appear in the cases where the service responsible for bridged mode starts incorrectly or stays in a limbo state. In this particular case, you can fix the problem by running some commands in an elevated command prompt.

– As it turns out, this particular problem can appear in the cases where the service responsible for the bridged mode starts incorrectly or remains in a limbo state. In this particular case, you can fix the problem by running some commands in an elevated command prompt. WMware chooses the wrong virtual network – If you let VMware choose which virtual network to choose for bridging mode, it will likely use one with no active connection to the internet, causing this problem. One way to fix this problem is to set up a specific virtual network that you know works.

– If you let VMware choose which virtual network to use for bridging mode, it will likely use one with no active connection to the internet – leading to this issue. One way to fix this problem is to set up a specific virtual network that you know works. Wmware is bridging the wrong adapter – If you leave the bridging settings on Automatic, this issue occurs when VMnet0 ends up bridging to a network adapter that is not currently maintaining your internet connection. You can fix this problem by manually selecting the bridging adapter.

– If you leave the bridging settings on Automatic, this issue occurs when VMnet0 is bridged to a network adapter that is not currently maintaining your internet connection. You can fix this problem by manually selecting the bridging adapter. Too many unnecessary adapters – VMware is not very good at choosing the ideal host network adapter to use for bridging mode. Fortunately, you can ensure that the software doesn’t pick the wrong one by removing any unnecessary adapters from the Automatic Bridging list.

– VMware is not very good at choosing the ideal host network adapter that should be used for bridging mode. Fortunately, you can ensure that the software doesn’t pick the wrong one by removing any unnecessary adapters from the Automatic Bridging list. VPN client interferes with VMware – There are several VPN clients (particularly Endpoint Remote Access VPN) that are known to interfere with VMware’s bridging capability. If this scenario applies, you can fix the problem by uninstalling the VPN client from the host computer.

– There are several VPN clients (notably Endpoint Remote Access VPN) that are known to interfere with VMware’s bridging capability. If this scenario applies, you can fix the problem by uninstalling the VPN client from the host computer. VirtualBox adapters interfere with VMware – As several users have reported, this particular problem can also occur if you were previously using VirtualBox (before switching to VMware). If the network adapters used by VirtualBox are still in use, you need to disable them to fix the issue in VMware.

– As several users reported, this particular problem can also occur if you were previously using VirtualBox (before switching to VMware). If the network adapters used by VirtualBox are still in use, you need to disable them to solve the problem in VMware. The Windows update broke the bridging feature – If you update to Windows 10 build 1703 or later while VMware is installed, the update used will end up deleting some registry keys that are essential for the bridging feature to work. In this case, you can fix the problem by resetting the Virtual Network Editor settings to default.

– If you update to Windows 10 Build 1703 or later while VMware is installed, the update used will end up deleting some registry keys that are essential for bridging functionality. In this case, you can fix the problem by resetting the Virtual Network Editor settings to default. Third-party firewall is blocking the bridging feature – There are several AV suites that include a firewall (most commonly AVG and BitDefender) that are known to cause this particular issue. If this scenario applies, you can either use the built-in solution to let virtual machines through the firewall or disable the firewall entirely.

Method 1: Restart Vmnetbridge.sys via Admin CMD

VMnetbridge.sys (VMware Bridge Control) can also cause this particular problem in cases where the file starts incorrectly or is corrupted before it can facilitate communication between the host machine and the guest machine.

If this scenario applies, you can probably solve the problem by essentially restarting the bmnetbridge service from an elevated command prompt. Several affected users have reported that using this technique fixed the issue as the host and guest machines that were started communicated the next time a VMware window was started.

Here is a quick guide to restarting vmnetbriddge.sys via an admin cmd:

Ensure that VMware Workstation is closed along with any open guest computers. Press Windows key + R to open a Run dialog box. Then type “cmd” and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open an elevated command prompt. When you see the UAC (User Account Control) confirmation prompt, click Yes to grant administrative privileges. In the elevated Command Prompt, type the following commands in order, pressing Enter after each command to restart the VMnetbridge service: the virtual machine you were previously having trouble with.

If the issue is still not resolved and you are still encountering the same Bridged Network issue, move on to the next method below.

Method 2: Use a specific virtual network (VMnet0)

Several affected users have reported that after configuring their WMware workstation to use a specific virtual network (VMnet0), the issue was completely resolved for them. As it turns out, if you leave the network connection to Bridged, there’s a chance the program will use the wrong one.

In the vast majority of cases, VMnet0 is the correct virtual network to use in that case. Here’s a quick guide to programming VMware to use a custom virtual network (VMnet0):

Open VMWare Workstation, right click on the virtual machine you are having problems with (on the left menu) and select Settings. In the virtual machine settings, select the Hardware tab. Then select Network Adapters from the device list. With the network adapter selected, go right and click the switch for Custom: Specific virtual network. Then use the drop down menu below to select VMnet0 from the list of specific virtual networks. Click OK to save the configuration, then restart the virtual machine and see if you can now connect to the internet with your virtual machine.

If the issue is still not resolved and you are still having network bridge issues in VMware Workstation, continue to the next method below.

Method 3: Disable all adapters except the physical NIC

If you are using Workstation Pro and are not experiencing network connectivity within your virtual machines while using a bridged connection, you can resolve the issue by using the VMWare Virtual Network Editor to deselect all non-essential network adapters from the network port.

Several affected users have reported that shortly after making this change, the host computer and the guest computer started sharing the Internet connection.

Important: This method is only applicable if you are using VMware Workstation Pro. The following steps cannot be replicated on VMware Workstation Player!

Here’s a quick guide on how to do it:

Open VMware Workstation PRO and use the ribbon at the top to go to Edit > Virtual Network Editor. Note: You can also completely close VMware Workstation and use the Windows search function (press the Windows key) to search for VMWare Virtual Network Editor. In the Virtual Network Editor, click the Change settings button at the bottom of the screen. Since the problem most likely occurs because the bridge adapter is confused, let’s make things clearer by selecting Vmnet0 from the virtual network list and changing the Bridge to option from Automatic to the network adapter you are currently using (in in this case , the wireless network adapter). Restart your VMWare Workstation virtual machine and check if the issue is resolved.

If you are still encountering the same issue or this method was not applicable to your specific scenario, move on to the next method below.

Method 4: Remove all unnecessary host network adapters

If you are using VMware Workstation Player (the free version) and the method above was not applicable, you can do it from the free version. In the vast majority of cases, the error occurs because the software has many host network adapters to choose from when it needs to choose one for the bridged network connection.

Oftentimes, the software will choose a network adapter that cannot connect to the internet, which ultimately leads to the problem described in this article. If this scenario applies, you can easily solve the problem by ensuring that the host adapters that are not required for this procedure are removed from the Automatic Bridging Settings menu.

Here’s a quick guide on how to do it:

First things first, we need to start by figuring out what network adapter is being used for our current connection to the internet. This first step is important because it will help us later figure out which host network adapters to discard. Press Windows key + R to open a Run dialog box. Then type “ncpa.cpl” and press Enter to open the Network Connections menu. Check the Network Connections menu to see which network is currently in use. You can tell this by looking at which entry has the green signal icon. Once you’ve found the active network connection, you’ll see which network adapter is being used for it. You can see this just below the network name – in our case it’s Qualcomm Atheros AR9285. Now that you know which host network adapter to use, open VMware Workstation, right-click the virtual machine you’re having trouble with, and choose Settings. On the Virtual Machine Settings screen, select the Hardware tab and then Network Adapters from the list below. With the network adapter device selected, move to the right part of the screen and turn on the switch for Bridged (under Network Connection). Then click the Configure Adapter button. In the Automatic Bridging Settings menu, disable everything except the host network adapter that you discovered in step 3. Click OK to save the configuration, then start the virtual machine and check if you have a working bridged network connection.

If you are still encountering the same problem, move on to the next method below.

Method 5: Remove the VPN client from the host computer

As it turns out, this particular problem can also occur if you’re actively using a VPN connection to protect your anonymity online. Several affected users have reported that once they uninstall their VPN client, the bridged connection works as expected.

Note: If you enjoy using a VPN client, you can try different providers until you discover an option that doesn’t conflict with VMware Workstation. In most cases, the VPN client reporting a conflict with the VMware workstation is Endpoint Remote Access VPN, but there could be others.

Here is a quick guide on how to uninstall your VPN client to solve the bridged network issue:

Press Windows key + R to open a Run dialog box. Then type “appwiz.cpl” and press Enter to open the Programs and Features screen. On the Programs and Features screen, scroll down through the list of applications and locate the VPN client you are currently using. Right-click on your VPN client and select Uninstall. Then follow the on-screen instructions to complete the uninstallation. Once the VPN client is uninstalled, restart your computer and see if the bridged connection issue is resolved by starting the same virtual machine that was giving you trouble before.

Method 6: Disable all VirtualBox network entries from Networking Connections

If you have been using Virtual Box before, remember that you may encounter problems if you switch to VMware (Bridged Mode). As it turns out, the adapters left behind by Virtual Box can cause problems with bridged connections inside VMware.

If this scenario applies to your current situation and you want to use VMware, there are three options:

Uninstall VirtualBox along with any adapter that was used by the software.

Start using NAT with VMWare

Disable all network entries related to VirtualBox in the Network Connections menu

Since this guide is all about helping you use a bridged connection with VMware Workstation, we’ll focus on the third option as it’s the least intrusive. Here’s a quick guide to disabling all VirtualBox network entries to fix birding on VMware:

Press Windows key + R to open a Run dialog box. Then type ncpa.cpl and press Enter to bring up the Network Connections tab. On the Network Connections tab, right-click > Disable on each network adapter belonging to VirtualBox. You may have one or more different adapters depending on how extensively you’ve used VirtualBox’s features.

Note: If prompted by UAC (User Account Control), click Yes to grant the necessary permissions to disable the virtual adapter. Once each VirtualBox adapter has been disabled, open VMware, start the virtual machine that was previously giving you problems and see if the bridging features aren’t working.

If you are still encountering the same problem, move on to the next method below

Method 7: Restore Virtual Network Editor settings to default values

As it turns out, there is a specific Windows 10 build that is breaking the bridged connection feature on VMware Workstation. As it turns out, if you upgrade to Windows 10 build 1703 or later while WMware is installed, the network bridging feature becomes unusable unless manual action is taken.

This happens because this update deletes some keys (VMnetDHCP and VMware NAT Service), effectively breaking the bridging function in VMWare Workstation. But as it turns out, fixing the damage is very easy, just forcing VMware to rebuild the two registry keys by resetting the Virtual Network Editor settings to default.

Note: The following steps are for Vmware Workstation PRO users only and cannot be replicated to VMware Player.

Here’s a quick guide on how to do it:

Open File Explorer and navigate to the following location: C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmnetcfg.exe Once there, right click on vmnetcfg.exe and select Run as Administrator carry out. Once you’ve managed to open the Virtual Network Editor with administrator privileges, click Restore Default and then Apply to save the changes. Restart VMware Workstation and verify that bridge mode works as intended.

If this method was not applicable or you are still encountering this particular problem then move on to the next method below.

Method 8: Allow VMware virtual machines from AVG’s firewalls (if applicable)

As it turns out, this particular problem can also arise if you use third-party security (including a firewall) that overly protects the network connections it manages. Several affected users have reported that they were able to resolve the issue after finding that the AVG Firewall (or a similar security solution) is to blame for their bridged mode issue in VMware.

Update: It seems that this issue can also be caused by Bitdefender’s firewall. Since BitDefender does not include an option that allows virtual networks through its firewall, the only option in this case is to disable the firewall entirely.

If this scenario applies to your current situation and you are using AVG Internet Security, you can quickly fix the problem by changing AVG’s advanced settings to allow all virtual machines and traffic. That’s how it’s done:

Open Avast Internet Security and go to Settings > Expert Mode > Advanced Settings. In the Advanced Settings menu, ensure that the “Allow all traffic to/from virtual machines supported by the firewall” check box is selected. Click Apply to save the current configuration. Restart VMware and see if the issue is resolved.

Note: If you’re using a different security suite and think this method might be applicable, search online for specific steps on how to allow your virtual networks according to the firewall you’re using. H

You can use VMware Remote Console to add and manage network adapters on your virtual machine.

procedure

Access the target virtual machine in VMware Remote Console. If you want to configure a new network adapter, add it to your virtual machine. Note: Adding a network adapter is not supported on macOS. The VMware Remote Console macOS client cannot add hardware to a virtual machine. Open the virtual machine settings in VMware Remote Console. On Windows, select VMRC > Manage > Virtual Machine Settings.

. Under Linux, select Virtual Machine > Virtual Machine Settings. Open the Hardware tab and click Add. Select Network Adapters and click Finish. Open the settings for the target adapter. On Windows or Linux, open the Hardware tab and select the desired network adapter.

tab and select the desired network adapter. On macOS, select the desired network adapter under Removable Storage. Specify the connection settings for the network adapter. To connect the network adapter immediately, select Connected (Windows or Linux) or Connect network adapter (macOS).

(Windows or Linux) or (macOS). To connect the network adapter every time the virtual machine is powered on, select Connect at power on. From the Network connection drop-down menu, select a virtual network that the network adapter will connect to.

When you install a workstation player, a VMware Player Bridged network is automatically set up for you. However, you may encounter problems connecting your guest operating systems to the network or the Internet. In this article, we cover how the VMware network adapter is likely causing this issue and how you can fix it in a few simple steps.

Why isn’t my VMware Player Bridged network working?

By default, when you put a network adapter of a VMware Player computer in bridged mode, it automatically chooses which physical network adapter to bridge to. This can cause problems when multiple network adapters are installed on the physical system. In this case, it may pick the wrong one.

So if you can’t get a network or internet connection in your guest OS to work in your virtual machines, this may be the underlying problem – the network adapter may be bridging the wrong adapter.

This problem can occur even if a bridged network creation has been successful in the past. Restarting the guest operating system or restarting the virtual machine can cause a different adapter to be automatically selected.

How to configure bridged networking in VMware Workstation Player

You can use a utility called Virtual Network Editor (vmnetcfg.exe) to manually configure network bridging. However, this utility is no longer included or installed with VMware Player, so you must manually extract it from VMware Workstation. That’s how it’s done:

Download and run the VMware Workstation Trial installer file, but don’t actually install it. Change to your windows temp directory. You can do this quickly by typing %temp% in the Run prompt or in any Windows Explorer window or dialog box. Locate and open the temporary installation directory for VMware Workstation Trial, which is in a directory named VMware_ along with some numbers, e.g. B. VMware_1347648287. In the VMware installation temporary directory, open the core.cab file and copy vmnetcfg.exe to the VMware Player installation folder – for example, C:Program FilesVMwareVMware Player.

Now you can run Virtual Network Editor and even add a shortcut to your desktop or start menu folder. Follow these steps to select the correct network adapter:

Click Network adapters to configure the VM as bridged. Click Network Adapters again and check Bridged: Directly connected to the physical network. Click the OK button to save the setting. Reboot the VM and run ipconfig in the command prompt. Test the internet connection.

After applying the changes, VMware Player should use the selected adapter for bridging. However, you may need to restart your host PC before it will work.

If you are using the virtual machine on a laptop or other mobile device, select Replicate physical network connection state.

This setting causes the IP address to be renewed when you switch from one wired or wireless network to another.

While the other answers here provide good descriptions for the NAT and Bridged modes, their explanations for host-only mode are not entirely accurate.

From the VMware documentation under Configuring Network Connections > Understanding General Network Configurations:

Host-only networking creates a network that is entirely contained within the host computer. Host-only networking provides a network connection between the virtual machine and the host system using a virtual network adapter that is visible to the host operating system.

(emphasis mine.)

Note that it doesn’t state that only the host can access the VM. The network is self-contained, not the connection. This is a subtle but important difference.

Additionally, as pointed out by user 5389726598465, under Creating Virtual Machines > Preparing to Create a New Virtual Machine > Choosing the Network Connection Type for a Virtual Machine:

With host-only networking, the virtual machine can only communicate with the host system and other virtual machines on the host-only network. Select Host-Only Networking to set up an isolated virtual network.

You should be aware that the host-only, NAT, and bridged modes are aliases for specific virtual network switches (“VMnets”) that are preconfigured to behave differently. As with a normal network switch, all machines connected to the same switch are visible to each other.

This means that all VMs connected to a host-only network are visible to the host and to each other. If you want a VM that is only visible to the host, you must assign it a dedicated VMnet and avoid assigning other VMs to that VMnet.

The default network mode in Virtualbox is NAT. It allows the guest computer to surf the internet through a virtual router and that’s great for most people. But if you want to have more interaction between host machine and guest machine, like SSH into the guest machine, visiting a website developed on the guest machine, allow other devices on your network to see the guest machine and allow the guest machine to surf the Internet You can choose the bridged network mode for your guest.

Change the network mode to Bridged

When the guest computer is off, open the settings dialog. In the left pane, click the Network tab.

By default, only Adapter 1 is enabled for the guest computer, and the default network mode for Adapter 1 is NAT. To change the network mode to Bridged, click NAT and select Bridged Adapter from the list. Click the OK button to save your settings. Thats is quite easy.

IP address of the guest computer in bridged network mode

Now start your guest machine. In my case my host is Ubuntu and my guest is openSUSE. Once started, open a terminal and enter the ifconfig command to find the guest computer’s IP address. You can see my openSUSE guest’s IP address is 192.168.1.102.

Next, open a terminal on the host machine and type the ifconfig command to find the host machine’s IP address. You can see my Ubuntu host machine has IP address 192.168.1.101.

The IP addresses of the host computer and guest computer are therefore in the same network range (192.168.1.0/24). I can ping the guest from the Ubuntu host.

And I can ping the host from the openSUSE guest.

In bridged network mode, the Virtualbox guest’s default gateway is your home router (if you have a home network). This means that your home router assigns an IP address to the Virtualbox guest. Type the following command in the virtualbox guest to find out the default gateway.

Show IP route

The default over IP address is the IP address of the default gateway.

Visit the guest’s local host website

I installed Nginx web server on my Ubuntu host, I can visit Nginx web server from my openSUSE guest. Simply enter the IP address of the host machine in the browser’s address bar.

You can also install a web server on the guest machine and visit it from the host machine.

Other devices on your network can see the guest computer

My Android phone is connected to my home network and I can visit the guest computer’s website from my Android phone. Enter the IP address of the guest computer in the Android browser.

You can surf the web on the guest machine, connect SSH to the host, and vice versa.

Finally, the bridged network mode makes the guest computer available to your local network. The virtual machine is like any other physical machine on the network. In NAT mode, the guest computer is protected under a virtual router and devices on your network cannot see it. To access guest machines, you need to set up port forwarding. In both network modes, the guest computer can access the Internet.

Next Step

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Opposite Fieras

When two NAT devices are daisy-chained (for example, a modem with built-in NAT capabilities is connected to a router that is also a NAT device), it’s a good idea to configure your modem in bridge mode to to avoid conflicts.

What is NAT?

In computer networks, the process of Network Address Translation (NAT) involves rewriting the source and/or destination address of IP packets as they pass through a router. NAT allows multiple hosts on a private network to access the Internet through a single public IP address.

What is bridge mode?

Bridge mode is the configuration that disables the modem’s NAT function and allows a router to act as a DHCP server with no IP address conflict.

The modem must be bridged before it connects to a router, as applications such as VPN, P2P, and remote management require a public IP address on the router’s WAN port to connect successfully.

Note: Bridge mode settings require you to call your ISP.

Here is a list of common service providers and modems that may require the modem to be placed in bridge mode:

Note: This list only identifies the popular models and does not cover all modems.

Modems:

Westent 2100

Westent 2200

Westent 6100

Speed ​​Stream 5100B

2 wire

Zyxel

Netopia

Sprint 645 series

Paradyne

Veragia

Broadexant

Draytek 2400

Comtrend CD507

Arecom 800

Zyxel Prestige 623-40

MSN DSL 1000

tranceo

line of sight

Internet provider:

AT&T

sprint

verizon

Bellsouth

CenturyTel (Century Link)

How to detect NAT modems:

VMware Player does not provide full customization of virtual network adapters for your virtual machines. This can be an issue if you have specific network requirements, e.g. B. custom IP address subnets or ranges, or when multiple physical adapters are installed on the host computer.

In VMware Player version 5, VMware added the ability to choose which physical adapters to use in bridged mode, in case you have multiple physical adapters on the host machine and the wrong one is automatically chosen. However, you still cannot set custom IP settings for NAT or host-only modes.

But as you will learn in this tutorial, you can use VMware’s Virtual Network Editor (vmnetcfg.exe) to create/modify custom virtual adapters and then assign them to virtual machines by editing their configuration file (.vmx).

Download the Virtual Network Editor to create custom virtual networks

The Virtual Network Editor utility is no longer included or installed with VMware Player, so you must manually extract it from VMware Workstation:

Download and run the VMware Workstation Trial installer file, but don’t actually install it. Change to your windows temp directory. You can do this quickly by typing “%temp%” in the Run prompt or in any Windows Explorer window or dialog box. Locate and open the temporary installation directory for VMware Workstation Trial, which is in a directory named VMware_ along with some numbers, e.g. B. VMware_1347648287. In the VMware installation temporary directory, open the core.cab file and copy vmnetcfg.exe to the VMware Player installation folder – for example, C:Program FilesVMwareVMware Player.

Now you can run the Virtual Network Editor (vmnetcfg.exe) and even add a shortcut for it on your desktop or in the start menu folder. And if you open the Virtual Network Editor, you can change the default virtual networks and add custom ones as well.

As we discussed in our previous article, if you are using bridge mode and want to choose which adapters you want to bridge with, select the VMnet0 interface and from the Bridged to drop-down menu select the desired adapter.

Assign virtual network adapters to virtual machines

To assign it to a specific virtual machine, you need to open and edit the VM’s configuration (.vmx) file:

Browse to the location of your virtual machine(s) images (e.g. C:UsersUsernameMy DocumentsMy Virtual MachinesMachineName.) and open the configuration file (.vmx) in Notepad or another plain text editor. Locate the ethernet0.connectionType setting and change it to “custom”, for example: ethernet0.connectionType = “custom” Add the ethernet0.vnet setting under the next line, where the value is the desired virtual network name. For example, if you want the virtual machine to be assigned to VMnet2, add: ethernet0.connectionType = “VMnet2”

And if you want to add multiple virtual network adapters to a virtual machine, you can add a new set of settings using ethernet1.connectionType, ethernet2.connectionType, etc. And if you want to assign them to a custom adapter, add the new setting like ethernet1.vnet, ethernet2.vnet, etc.

An important note to keep in mind: Any changes you make to the network adapter settings through the VMware Player GUI will destroy any custom settings you have made and you will need to make the changes again.

Eric Geier is a freelance tech writer – keep up to date with his articles on his Facebook fan page. He is also the founder of NoWiresSecurity, a cloud-based Wi-Fi security service, and On Spot Techs, an on-site computer services company.

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vmnetcfg.exe is required if you want to configure multiple network interfaces (e.g. one local and one wireless) on the same computer.

But where is it?

UPDATE This question was originally for version 3.1.1, but apparently VMWare still hasn’t fixed this, only in version 7.x. See my original one for updated answers.

Table of Contents

Create a virtual network

article

04/26/2022

3 minutes to read

7 contributors

In this article

Your virtual machines need a virtual network to share a network with your computer. Creating a virtual network is optional – if your virtual machine does not need to be connected to the internet or a network, proceed to creating a Windows virtual machine.

Connect virtual machines to the internet

Hyper-V has three types of virtual switches – external, internal, and private. Create an external switch to share your computer’s network with the virtual machines running on it.

This exercise walks you through creating an external virtual switch. When complete, your Hyper-V host will have a virtual switch that can connect virtual machines to the internet using your computer’s network connection.

Create a virtual switch with Hyper-V Manager

Open Hyper-V Manager. A quick way to do this is to press the Windows button or key and then type “Hyper-V Manager”.

If the search does not find the Hyper-V manager, Hyper-V or the Hyper-V management tools are not enabled. Read the instructions to enable Hyper-V. Select the server in the left pane or click “Connect to server…” in the right pane. In Hyper-V Manager, select Virtual Switch Manager… from the Actions menu on the right. In the Virtual Switches section, select New Virtual Network Switch. Under What kind of virtual switch do you want to create?, select External. Select the Create Virtual Switch button. Under Virtual Switch Properties, give the new switch a name, e.g. B. External VM Switch. Under Connection Type, make sure External Network is selected. Select the physical NIC to pair with the new virtual switch. This is the NIC that is physically connected to the network. Select Apply to create the virtual switch. At this point you will most likely see the following message. Click Yes to continue. Select OK to close the Virtual Switch Manager window.

Create a virtual switch using PowerShell

The following steps can be used to create a virtual switch with an external connection using PowerShell.

Use Get-NetAdapter to return a list of network adapters connected to the Windows 10 system. PS C:\> Get-NetAdapter Name InterfaceDescription ifIndex Status MacAddress LinkSpeed ​​—- ——————– ——- — ———- ——— Ethernet 2 Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Cont… 5 Up BC-30-5B-A8-C1-7F 1 Gbit/s Ethernet Intel(R) PRO/100M Desktop Adapter 3 Up 00-0E-0C-A8-DC-31 10 Mbps Select the network adapter to use with the Hyper-V switch and place an instance in a Variables named $net. $net = Get-NetAdapter -Name ‘Ethernet’ Run the following command to create the new Hyper-V virtual switch. New-VMSwitch -Name “External VM Switch” -AllowManagementOS $True -NetAdapterName $net.Name

Virtual networking on a laptop

NAT network

Network address translation (NAT) allows a virtual machine to access your computer’s network by combining the host computer’s IP address with a port through an internal Hyper-V virtual switch.

This has a few useful properties:

NAT preserves IP addresses by mapping an external IP address and port to a much larger set of internal IP addresses. NAT allows multiple virtual machines to host applications that require identical (internal) communication ports by mapping them to unique external ports. NAT uses an internal switch – creating an internal switch does not result in you using a network connection and tends to be less intrusive on a computer’s network.

To set up a NAT network and connect to a virtual machine, follow the NAT Networking User’s Guide.

The two switch approach

If you run Windows 10 Hyper-V on a laptop and frequently switch between wireless networks and a wired network, you may want to create a virtual switch for the Ethernet and wireless network cards. Depending on how the laptop is connected to the network, you can switch your virtual machines between these switches. Virtual machines do not automatically switch between wired and wireless.

Important The two-switch approach does not support an external vSwitch over wireless cards and should only be used for testing purposes.

Next step – create a virtual machine

Create a Windows virtual machine

This page describes how to create a new host-only adapter in VirtualBox. More information about host-only adapters and virtual networks in VirtualBox can be found here.

Create the virtual network

First you need to set up a virtual network for the host-only adapters to communicate with.

In the VirtualBox window, click File > Host Network Manager > Create. In the “DHCP Server” column of the network you just created, check the “Enable” option. Select your network and click Properties. On the Adapters tab, select Manually configure adapters and use the following settings:

IPv4 address: 192.168.56.1

IPv4 Network Mask: 255.255.255.0 On the DHCP Server tab, ensure that the Enable Server check box is selected and use the following settings:

Server address: 192.168.56.100

Server mask: 255.255.255.0

Lower address limit: 192.168.56.3

Upper address limit: 192.168.56.254 Click Apply and then click Close

Add a host-only adapter to the guest computer

You must add a host-only adapter for each guest that you want to communicate with over the network from the previous step.

Select the appropriate guest computer. Click Settings > Network. On the Adapter 2 tab, enter the following settings:

Enable network adapter: Enabled

Connected to: Host-only adapter

Name: vboxnet0 (NOTE: This should be the name of the network you created in the previous steps) Click OK

The host-only adapter should be ready to use on this machine. If you want to network multiple computers together, repeat steps 7-10 for each guest computer.