I am having two PC A,B and third Os running in Vmware say C
A --> ip address 192.168.81.82 (Linux machine)
B --> ip address 192.168.81.86 (Window machine)
C --> OS running in vmware
In B machine I am having Vmware installed above that I am running Software HSM(Hardware security module).This software comes integrated with some linux OS and running in Vmware

I want to connect from PC A to C.

When I was configuring I came across terms like bridging ,NAT etc.
I tried NAT setting and added Host Port, Virtual machine Ip address and Port
as 8080 192.168.81.99 and 80
and tried to ping from 192.168.81.82
ie. # ping 192.168.81.99
but show destination host unreachable
I read some documents about NAT but not getting clear understanding
or should I go for Bridged

As far as I know NAT in VMware is used to allow virtual machine running in VMware to communicate with other host in the network but not via same IP range used by other host in the physical network. Example:

A --> ip address 192.168.81.82 (Linux machine)
B --> ip address 192.168.81.86 (Window machine)

Machine C here will have IP from some other range let us say: 192.168.128.81 but will be able to communicate to 192.168.81.82 and 192.168.81.86 because 192.168.128.81 IP will be Natted using VMware NAT. You just have to make sure that NAT is properly configured in VMware.

Bridge also allow virtual machine to communicate with other host in the physical network but in a different way. In Bridge you will assign IP to your virtual machine from the physical range which is in use on your physical network. Example:

A --> ip address 192.168.81.82 (Linux machine)
B --> ip address 192.168.81.86 (Window machine)

Here on machine C you will manually assign an IP from 192.168.81.0 network manually let us say you assigned 192.168.81.100 and then all three hosts should be able to communicate with each other.

We need to go over the virtual machine routing features for this question and how linux protects network.

There are 4 ways to connect a client to the host.
One is bridged. It basically takes a direct connection to the host ip address. It doesn't always work as expected.

Two is nat. Nat is like your home router. In fact there is a software router inside the vm application. You need to study up on how that works because as in one, it doesn't always work as expected.
For example. Your home router has a public ip on the wan side and offers local private ip's to your lan. You can't easily port forward in vm's exactly but the virtual router tends to do ok following common subnet mask rules. Remember that the vm router is offering a unique subnet ip set. If you make a static ip in the client then it still may work but some oddities happen with gateway rules. Would it be easier for bridged? Maybe in this case yes.


Three is a vm to vm only network. It does work as expected generally. Vm's are on a private lan.
Four is no network access.

Now the second part of your issue is a hardened system. You generally have to open ports and in some cases protocols.


Before you go anywhere you may need to set up a more simple config. Get a common live iso image and boot it. It should work flawless in both nat and bridged if you stay away from ports and protocols that are pretty much useless today. Ping is more and more a useless command tool. Almost every os blocks it by default and many routers do by default.

If you are using NAT on your VM guest try setting it to DHCP. then try if the guest can see the host.
please share your guests network settings and VMware guest settings