Connecting VPC VM to internet

FWIW. I've seen a lot of posts around the net about problems connecting VMs
to the net; here's my experience.

have an older (2006) laptop with xp sp 2. had a bunch of vms on it using
VPC 2007. used to take it around to use in classes, bring it home plug it
into a switch and, when I wanted to go on the net, it would simply connect
using ICS running on the home desktop that was also plugged into the switch.
The virtual machines would also connect with nary a hiccup as long as one of
the adapters in the vm settings was the host machine's adapter.

I started using the laptop all the time. installed sp3. then decided I
wanted to connect to the net with an xp vm. no joy. there was no adapter
setting that would work.

decided it was comcast. it is always comcast, btw. nonetheless, i wasted a
day and a half researching the issue - got nothing. then wasted another
quarter day confirming my suspicion - the cable modem config would pick up a
different MAC address from a VM with the NIC set to the host machine's NIC,
no matter what I did, even if i set up Internet Connection Sharing on the
host. fifty bucks a month and cannot make two connections with one
computer.

anyway, long story short, the only way i could connect a VM to the net from
the laptop plugged directly into the cable modem was to set the host to ICS,
and set one of the guest's adapters to "Shared Networking (NAT)" AND change
the VM's MAC address (in the .vmc file) to the same address as the host's
nic. I got a MAC address conflict error when starting the VM, but the
conflict didn't affect anything.

It seemed to me this should work with ICS set on the host without any
further screwing around, but VPC seems to access the NIC directly and
transmit it's own mac address to the cable modem --- which, of course, means
comcast will reject the connection.

So final config in short: ICS on the host. The .vmc file edited in notepad
to show the same MAC address as the host. In VPC settings for the guest,
"Shared Networking (NAT)". That worked.

Next is to remove ICS from the host to see what happens. BTW in SP3
microsoft provides a "Wizard" with four or five useless steps to start ICS.
MSFT seems to have moved into terminal stupidity. The inertia developed by
their enormous size will keep them going for a while, but they're done. I'm
67 and do not want to learn a bunch of commands that use syntax developed by
dweebs in their parent's cellars, hence this and not Linux.

Happy end to NNTP to all! Happy embrace of an inferior solution!

Mike

Hi,

It should work without ICS on the host if the VM is set to shared
networking, and you really shouldn't have to change the MAC address of the
VM -- but I know things can get weird sometimes with certain NIC/driver
combinations on the host.

--
Bob Comer

"dubya" <> wrote in message
news:...
> FWIW. I've seen a lot of posts around the net about problems connecting
> VMs to the net; here's my experience.
>
> have an older (2006) laptop with xp sp 2. had a bunch of vms on it using
> VPC 2007. used to take it around to use in classes, bring it home plug it
> into a switch and, when I wanted to go on the net, it would simply connect
> using ICS running on the home desktop that was also plugged into the
> switch. The virtual machines would also connect with nary a hiccup as long
> as one of the adapters in the vm settings was the host machine's adapter.
>
> I started using the laptop all the time. installed sp3. then decided I
> wanted to connect to the net with an xp vm. no joy. there was no adapter
> setting that would work.
>
> decided it was comcast. it is always comcast, btw. nonetheless, i wasted
> a day and a half researching the issue - got nothing. then wasted another
> quarter day confirming my suspicion - the cable modem config would pick up
> a different MAC address from a VM with the NIC set to the host machine's
> NIC, no matter what I did, even if i set up Internet Connection Sharing on
> the host. fifty bucks a month and cannot make two connections with one
> computer.
>
> anyway, long story short, the only way i could connect a VM to the net
> from the laptop plugged directly into the cable modem was to set the host
> to ICS, and set one of the guest's adapters to "Shared Networking (NAT)"
> AND change the VM's MAC address (in the .vmc file) to the same address as
> the host's nic. I got a MAC address conflict error when starting the VM,
> but the conflict didn't affect anything.
>
> It seemed to me this should work with ICS set on the host without any
> further screwing around, but VPC seems to access the NIC directly and
> transmit it's own mac address to the cable modem --- which, of course,
> means comcast will reject the connection.
>
> So final config in short: ICS on the host. The .vmc file edited in
> notepad to show the same MAC address as the host. In VPC settings for the
> guest, "Shared Networking (NAT)". That worked.
>
> Next is to remove ICS from the host to see what happens. BTW in SP3
> microsoft provides a "Wizard" with four or five useless steps to start
> ICS. MSFT seems to have moved into terminal stupidity. The inertia
> developed by their enormous size will keep them going for a while, but
> they're done. I'm 67 and do not want to learn a bunch of commands that
> use syntax developed by dweebs in their parent's cellars, hence this and
> not Linux.
>
> Happy end to NNTP to all! Happy embrace of an inferior solution!
>
> Mike
>

"Robert Comer" <bobcomer-removeme-@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:...
> Hi,
>
> It should work without ICS on the host if the VM is set to shared
> networking, and you really shouldn't have to change the MAC address of the
> VM -- but I know things can get weird sometimes with certain NIC/driver
> combinations on the host.
>
> --
> Bob Comer

That's what I thought. But it didn't. And it didn't... and it didn't.
Changing the MAC address was the last resort. ICS was the next to last
resort. I thought for sure that if ICS was set on the host, the guest
acessing the host NIC would get the host MAC addy. But apparently not. And
it's just a standard mid level toshiba laptop with the standard Intel
network connection equipment. VP 2007 is updated completely, including the
hotfix supposed to address XP SP3 problems.

Mike
> "dubya" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> FWIW. I've seen a lot of posts around the net about problems connecting
>> VMs to the net; here's my experience.
>>
>> have an older (2006) laptop with xp sp 2. had a bunch of vms on it using
>> VPC 2007. used to take it around to use in classes, bring it home plug it
>> into a switch and, when I wanted to go on the net, it would simply
>> connect using ICS running on the home desktop that was also plugged into
>> the switch. The virtual machines would also connect with nary a hiccup as
>> long as one of the adapters in the vm settings was the host machine's
>> adapter.
>>
>> I started using the laptop all the time. installed sp3. then decided I
>> wanted to connect to the net with an xp vm. no joy. there was no
>> adapter setting that would work.
>>
>> decided it was comcast. it is always comcast, btw. nonetheless, i
>> wasted a day and a half researching the issue - got nothing. then wasted
>> another quarter day confirming my suspicion - the cable modem config
>> would pick up a different MAC address from a VM with the NIC set to the
>> host machine's NIC, no matter what I did, even if i set up Internet
>> Connection Sharing on the host. fifty bucks a month and cannot make two
>> connections with one computer.
>>
>> anyway, long story short, the only way i could connect a VM to the net
>> from the laptop plugged directly into the cable modem was to set the host
>> to ICS, and set one of the guest's adapters to "Shared Networking (NAT)"
>> AND change the VM's MAC address (in the .vmc file) to the same address as
>> the host's nic. I got a MAC address conflict error when starting the VM,
>> but the conflict didn't affect anything.
>>
>> It seemed to me this should work with ICS set on the host without any
>> further screwing around, but VPC seems to access the NIC directly and
>> transmit it's own mac address to the cable modem --- which, of course,
>> means comcast will reject the connection.
>>
>> So final config in short: ICS on the host. The .vmc file edited in
>> notepad to show the same MAC address as the host. In VPC settings for
>> the guest, "Shared Networking (NAT)". That worked.
>>
>> Next is to remove ICS from the host to see what happens. BTW in SP3
>> microsoft provides a "Wizard" with four or five useless steps to start
>> ICS. MSFT seems to have moved into terminal stupidity. The inertia
>> developed by their enormous size will keep them going for a while, but
>> they're done. I'm 67 and do not want to learn a bunch of commands that
>> use syntax developed by dweebs in their parent's cellars, hence this and
>> not Linux.
>>
>> Happy end to NNTP to all! Happy embrace of an inferior solution!
>>
>> Mike
>>

>I thought for sure that if ICS was set on the host, the guest
>acessing the host NIC would get the host MAC addy. But apparently not.

I really don't have any experience with ICS though, as I've never
needed it, so I can't really comment on that.


The easiest thing to make sure you don't have a problem like that
would be to get a router -- it could be set to clone your PC's mac
address on most I've seen.

It sounds like Comcast in your area has more checking than they do
here, but it's definitely the way they've been going.

--
Bob Comer




>On Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:31:09 -0400, "dubya" <> wrote:

>
>"Robert Comer" <bobcomer-removeme-@mindspring.com> wrote in message
>news:...
>> Hi,
>>
>> It should work without ICS on the host if the VM is set to shared
>> networking, and you really shouldn't have to change the MAC address of the
>> VM -- but I know things can get weird sometimes with certain NIC/driver
>> combinations on the host.
>>
>> --
>> Bob Comer
>
>That's what I thought. But it didn't. And it didn't... and it didn't.
>Changing the MAC address was the last resort. ICS was the next to last
>resort. I thought for sure that if ICS was set on the host, the guest
>acessing the host NIC would get the host MAC addy. But apparently not. And
>it's just a standard mid level toshiba laptop with the standard Intel
>network connection equipment. VP 2007 is updated completely, including the
>hotfix supposed to address XP SP3 problems.
>
> Mike
>> "dubya" <> wrote in message
>> news:...
>>> FWIW. I've seen a lot of posts around the net about problems connecting
>>> VMs to the net; here's my experience.
>>>
>>> have an older (2006) laptop with xp sp 2. had a bunch of vms on it using
>>> VPC 2007. used to take it around to use in classes, bring it home plug it
>>> into a switch and, when I wanted to go on the net, it would simply
>>> connect using ICS running on the home desktop that was also plugged into
>>> the switch. The virtual machines would also connect with nary a hiccup as
>>> long as one of the adapters in the vm settings was the host machine's
>>> adapter.
>>>
>>> I started using the laptop all the time. installed sp3. then decided I
>>> wanted to connect to the net with an xp vm. no joy. there was no
>>> adapter setting that would work.
>>>
>>> decided it was comcast. it is always comcast, btw. nonetheless, i
>>> wasted a day and a half researching the issue - got nothing. then wasted
>>> another quarter day confirming my suspicion - the cable modem config
>>> would pick up a different MAC address from a VM with the NIC set to the
>>> host machine's NIC, no matter what I did, even if i set up Internet
>>> Connection Sharing on the host. fifty bucks a month and cannot make two
>>> connections with one computer.
>>>
>>> anyway, long story short, the only way i could connect a VM to the net
>>> from the laptop plugged directly into the cable modem was to set the host
>>> to ICS, and set one of the guest's adapters to "Shared Networking (NAT)"
>>> AND change the VM's MAC address (in the .vmc file) to the same address as
>>> the host's nic. I got a MAC address conflict error when starting the VM,
>>> but the conflict didn't affect anything.
>>>
>>> It seemed to me this should work with ICS set on the host without any
>>> further screwing around, but VPC seems to access the NIC directly and
>>> transmit it's own mac address to the cable modem --- which, of course,
>>> means comcast will reject the connection.
>>>
>>> So final config in short: ICS on the host. The .vmc file edited in
>>> notepad to show the same MAC address as the host. In VPC settings for
>>> the guest, "Shared Networking (NAT)". That worked.
>>>
>>> Next is to remove ICS from the host to see what happens. BTW in SP3
>>> microsoft provides a "Wizard" with four or five useless steps to start
>>> ICS. MSFT seems to have moved into terminal stupidity. The inertia
>>> developed by their enormous size will keep them going for a while, but
>>> they're done. I'm 67 and do not want to learn a bunch of commands that
>>> use syntax developed by dweebs in their parent's cellars, hence this and
>>> not Linux.
>>>
>>> Happy end to NNTP to all! Happy embrace of an inferior solution!
>>>
>>> Mike
>>>
>