VMware is an excellent hypervisor to let users manage the virtual machines, but some users reported that sometimes network can’t be used on VMs while the connection is normal on host machine. See why it happens.
Updated by Nick Zhao on 2023/03/10
VMware is an excellent hypervisor to let users manage the virtual machines, but some users reported that sometimes network can’t be used on VMs while the connection is normal on host machine.
“I am using HP zbook, x86-64, running Windows 10 workstation. The scenario is that VM network connection sometimes failed. Most of time it works perfectly for me but the occasional disconnection is enough to drive me crazy. How can I fix this?”
In fact, many reasons could lead to that. According the solutions of users, the possible reasons could be antivirus, disabled system service, outdated application, or system glitches.
In other words, the connection might be blocked by your firewall or antivirus on host machine. You professional antivirus is executing scanning, insulating, or other task. Your VMware VM is suspected as the threat to your computer, so you can’t use the Internet on VM.
What’s more, the related system service, like NAT service, or DHCP serviced might be disabled, so that network could not be used on VM.
For system glitches, it could be easily fixed by rebooting, or no one knows the bug so you might have to reinstall the operating system.
Since you have known the possible causes of why you can’t use network on virtual machine, you could troubleshoot it according to the symptom of your VM or follow the solutions in this section to solve the problem.
Whether you believe or not, according to experience, restarting could solve 90% of computer problems. You won’t regret to try the simplest solution. Maybe you would find that you VM network connection gets fine like magic.
As it is said before, disabling antivirus or firewall might fix the issue. You could also ask the tech support of your antivirus whether there is an mode for VM. As far as we know, AVG Antivirus has such option that Allow any traffic from/to Virtual Machines supported by firewall.
Press Windows Key and R > input services.msc > locate VMware NAT service and enable it. You could also enable other corresponding services like Bridged (DHCP).
Restarting the corresponding services might also help mitigate the situation.
Right-click the Windows icon on desktop > select Device Manager > locate and expand Network adapters > right-click the related adapter > select Update Driver Software > select Search Automatically for Updated Driver Software > waiting for update completed
Find Network adapter as in Solution 4 > right-click the related adapter > select Uninstall Device > select “Scan for hardware changes” (just below the Help option) in device manager to reinstall network adapter.
If you couldn’t find VMware network adapter not showing up in this panel, you could also use this solution to reinstall it.
Reboot the VM > double-click the adapter icon > if it says “Connected”, uncheck it (like unplug the ethernet cable) > check it again to reconnected to the Internet
Certain users report that putting ADSL router IP as DNS IP in virtual network editor in vmnet8--->NAT settings--->DNS settings could solve the problem.
Go to Network and Sharing Center > select Change adapter settings > right-click "VMware Network Adapter VMnet1" (you might see the red x on it) > select Diagnose > do the same for "VMware Network Adapter VMnet8"
Some users also reported that disabling the network adapters and then running diagnose could fix the issue. It looks like the solution 6.
In the VMware software, click Edit > select Virtual Network Adaptor > click Restore Defaults > click OK
I think this might be the last solution you want to use, but it is very likely to fix the issue. The most important thing is backup VM before you delete it.
If you are Ubuntu user and have problem using browser to connect to internet, install or update the apt-get could be the solution.
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When you find VM could not be able to connected to the network, the problem might be caused by antivirus, disabled system service, outdated application, or system glitches. This passage has given you the comprehensive solution to help you troubleshoot and solve the problem in every way.
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