VMWare Experts Needed

[Doh!]

I just installed WinMe as a guest in XP thinking that I wouldn't have to dual boot & reboot only to use a laser printer which is not compatible w/ win2k or XP. It appears that the printer will work using VMWare since WinME found the hardware & is asking for the drivers.

However, I can't configure VMWare's network to use XP's ICS (I need to go on the net to grab a set of printer drivers).

The current setup in XP (host) uses RASPPPOE to connect to ADSL, and has two network cards for ICS (one from the external adsl modem and the other to the switch for providing internet connections to other workstations in this room).

The guest (WinME) has two virtual ethernet cards which are automatically bridged, and is using the same name for the workgroup.

I'm running out of clues here, can anyone help?

 

[Abzstrak]

WinME is only going to need access to the NIC for the internal network. That way it'll be like a winME machine on the inside of the XP ICS. Just go into the config and disable using the other nic, should configure correctly then.

 

[Elledan]

FYI, the virtual PC VMWare creates makes it appear to the guest OS as though it's the only OS running on the same (hardware-wise) system as the primary OS.

It's as though you've installed each OS on a different system, but which identical hardware. This means that neither OS ('real' nor 'virtual') can see each other. They use the same hardware without realizing this. So you use the same NIC or modem to connect with the secondary OS as you did with the primary OS.

In short: install the NIC/modem drivers plus any software necessary to create a connection and you should be ready to connect to the internet

 

[Doh!]

Abzstrak,

I've tried to set the network connection between the guest and the host bridging the virtual nic to the XP's internal nic (the one that's going from XP to the switch box). As XP's nic has an address of 192.168.0.xxx/255.255.xxx.xxx, I configured the virtual nic in WinME in a similar manner. I think the network has been established as I was able to share folders between the two (although the connection gets disconnected once in a while - for instance, when I'm downloading stuff from the internet in XP, the network between ME and XP is not available until the download is complete). At any rate, despite the fact that I have the network connection between the two, I still don't have any internet connection available in ME. Obviously, I'm doing something wrong here I only installed one virtual nic in ME to be bridged to XP's nic.

Elledan,

Since I was able to establish an internal network connection between the two, I copied the RASPPPOE installation folder to ME and tried to set it up as if ME was a stand-alone OS. For some reason, it didn't work. What I can't understand is, how will it be possible for ME to establish an internet connection using RASPPPOE when XP is already connected to the internet through RASPPPOE? I must be missing a big picture here...confused

I think VMWare offers three types of connections: NAT, Bridged & Host-only. I've read through the help file and the documentation on the website & still can't figure out what's the best option for my current setting.

Despite this problem, I'm very impressed with VMWare as it has improved tremendously since my previous trial which was about two years ago. Yes, my hardware performance has more than tripled in the last two years which probably contributes to seamless operations of both guest and host OS, but nonetheless, I'm quite impressed. If everything works out as planned, I wouldn't mind the heavy price tag (time to be nice to my sister-in-law who can get the student discount).

 

[Elledan]

<< If everything works out as planned, I wouldn't mind the heavy price tag (time to be nice to my sister-in-law who can get the student discount). >>



Ah well, I haven't used VMWare, but I've read a lot of reviews and stuff, so I thought I had a clue. Obviously I don't know enough yet =)

 

[pcmark]

Have you tried using NAT through VMWARE on the guest OS? I've had good results with this method, although my cable service doesn't use RASPPPOE, so I can't vouch for that.

 

[manly]

Sorry but Elledan doesn't know exactly what he's talking about.

The host OS controls the bare hardware. The guest OS controls whatever hardware is virtualized by VMware. It does not see itself running on an exact "clone" of the real hardware.

The first question is how is the guest OS's network setup? By DHCP of course? Did you verify that the network settings of the guest make sense for ICS to work?

I haven't used XP ICS on a host OS, but in 98SE ICS, ICS is bound to a network device.

To provide ICS service to clients connected to the switch, ICS is bound to the NIC that connects to the switch.

So, to provide ICS service to the VMware guest OS, I would assume ICS would also need to be bound to the virtual NIC provided by VMware. To get a virtual NIC, you would configure VMware to run "host-only" networking.

If you run bridged networking only, then the answer is different. Although conceptually I understand bridged networking, I've never tried it out myself.

I have however successfully gotten a guest XP (connecting to the Internet by modem over virtualized COM port) to provide ICS to the host Linux.

I've also had success with a Linux host doing NAT for Windows guests.

Since I've only run VMware for Linux, please excuse me if my assumptions about VMware for Windows simply are wrong in any way.

In short, remember there has to be a network connection between the ICS gateway and the client to get shared access to the Internet. With VMware, this doesn't change. There has to be a network connection between the gateway (host OS) and the client (guest OS) for ICS to work. Unless I'm mistaken, that network connection is virtual, created in software by VMware.

 

[Elledan]

<< Sorry but Elledan doesn't know exactly what he's talking about. >>

No need to rub it in...

 

[Doh!]

Still trying to figure it out. I think I can handle it though if I spend enough time for trial & error. In the mean time, I've downloaded the trial version of Connectix' Virtual PC for Windows which is similar to VMware. I'm going to set it up on another pc & see if there are any major differences (maybe networking would be easier...).

Any one with experiences trying out both VMware & Virtual PC?

By the way, thanks all for you help (even Elledan).

 

[TonyRic]

Have you attempted this by configuring VMWare to use NAT thereby not needing ICS at all? Using NAT you will be using the host's connection seamlessly. This is the same on the Linux and Windows versions of the software.

 

[Doh!]

TonyRic,

I guess I don't quite understand how I can configure VMware to use NAT since I have to have ICS for the host to provide internet connection to other workstations in the local network. XP (host) has ICS enabled to share internet connection with other pc connected on the local network (I used to have two routers but I have to use ICS...it's a long story...) I just tried using NAT for the virtual network & couldn't get it working. I'll resolve it one day, I guess.

 

[Electrode]

If I understand correctly, you only have one real comp (i.e. no ethernet lan to other comps).

I'm not sure if this has already been recommended, but here's my suggestion:

1. In WinXP, go to add hardware. choose the "new device" option at the bottom of the hardware list, and then pick "select hardware from list".
2. Go to "Network Adapters" and then select Microsoft > Microsoft loopback adapter.
3. When that's done, you should have a new network device in WinXP. This will be your LAN devie that VMware will bridge WinME to.
4. Set it up with TCP/IP and file sharing, and give it a static IP: 192.168.0.1, then accept it.
5. In the connection for your DSL modem, enable ICS for the virtual adapter you just set up.
6. Tell VMware to bridge to the virtual adapter.
7. In WinME under VMware, send some pings to 192.168.0.1, your internet IP, a web site's IP (like 216.151.100.123) and finally a web site's hostname (like forums.anandtech.com).
8. If all the pings worked, you're all set. Otherwise, make sure WinME is configured correctly.

 

[manly]

I haven't tried VMware's NAT yet, but it essentially has to be providing the same services as ICS:

1. NAT (IP masquerading in Linux-speak)
2. DHCP so that the client (guest OS) gets all the correct settings automagically

Note that DHCP isn't strictly required for NAT to work (you can configure the client's networking manually with static addressing).

What TonyRic is suggesting is to turn off VMware's NAT instead of ICS. This assumes that you can run ICS's NAT for the network interface connected to the switch, and VMware's NAT for the (software interface) connected to the guest OS, simultaneously.

My suggestion (and I could be wrong), is that to use ICS, you need to enable host-only networking for the VMware guest. Have you tried that?