Hi - I hope this is an okay question to ask in the newbie forum.

I am running VMware on a Windows 7 host with Ubuntu 9.10 just installed. I've googled around trying to figure out how to set up internet access in the guest via a wireless connection, but haven't been able to find directions or guidance at a level I can understand. I've been focusing my attempts on a NAT connection, since this seems to be referred to as the simplest option.

System details:
*VMware version 6.0.4
*I use wireless connections at school and at home (host networking is totally functional)
*I don't have VMware tools installed, because it doesn't install correctly on its own and the guidance I've found suggests I need to download/apt-get some additional patches...which of course I can't do.
*I'm new enough to Ubuntu (previous linux experience in a Cygwin setup) that I don't know how to check network settings from inside the guest.
*I don't know what other information about my system is relevant, but can share details.

Most of the tutorials I've seen make reference to messing around with the IP and firewall configurations of either/both of host & guest, but I don't understand how to do this (and am very nervous about wrecking the functioning of my host computer!)

Can someone explain what settings and configurations in the guest and host I need to check or update to get from zero to wireless internet access in the guest via a NAT connection? You can assume I'm reasonable comfortable with command line interfaces, and not very comfortable (but willing to learn) about fiddling with IP addresses and local networks.

Thanks for reading!

I remember there used to be problems with host side WLAN interfaces, e.g. bridged networking was (and maybe still is) not possible.
However, NAT should work if you simply assign a virtual ethernet card to the host's WLAN interface via NATted networking (in VMware's VM settings) and configure that as a normal ethernet interface (in the guest OS).

If you think about seeing the wireless card directly in the guest OS: this is not possible; the guest always only sees the virtual hardware you assign to it and afaik VMware has no virtual wireless card. So what, why should it? It's all about enabling network functionality, which is much easier to configure in the guest using standard ethernet.

Hi - thanks for your response. I'm getting stuck on the first step mentioned, "assigning a virtual ethernet card to the host's WLAN" in VM settings.

I can find what I think is the right menu under Edit>Virtual Network Settings, and see that VMNet8(Nat), the virtual network for NAT, has DHCP Enabled. When I go to the"Host Virtual Network Mapping" tab, I have dropdown menus for each of the different virtual networks. The 'bridging' option (VMNet0) has my actual wireless card listed there (I have no success accessing the internet in bridging mode, though)

However, for VMNet8 (the one for NAT connections), the only option in the drop-down menu is something called "Local Area Connection 3". I can also see this same "Local Area Connection 3" in the Windows network management system, where it is listed as an unknown, disconnected connection. What do I need to do either to the setting in VM or to the LAC3 in oder to associate it with my host WLAN?

Hope someone can clear this up for me...

Hi,

I was also battling with this problem getting NAT working "out of the box".

• VMware 6.5
• Windows7 64-bit host
• Ubuntu 9.10 guest
• NAT mode
• Guest IP address 192.168.126.32
• Default Gateway 192.168.126.2 (could ping this OK)
• Could ping and nslookup to google.com OK
• Could not browse web to anything

I switched to Bridged mode - no change.
Then I enabled the option "Replicate physical network connection state".

After I did a Disconnect and Connect via the VMware "system tray", I could browse to the outside world.

I notice that after I did this, I got a "real" IP address from my corporate (or home) network, not from the Windows7 host.

This makes me think that there is something we need to do to Windows7 networking to allow web browsing via the NAT option in VMware.

You could try VirtualBox and see if it works. VirtualBox networking is usually better than VMWare's.