VMWare Fusion 6.0.2 Network Bridging is allowing only certain specific traffic

Question

I am using OSX Mavericks and VMWare Fusion v6.0.2. I am running two Virtual machines, one Windows 7 Pro, and the other Debian Sid.

I do not wish to use NAT networking through the Host, I prefer to have the VMs sitting directly on the network, but I am having a problem getting the bridged networking functionality of VMWare Fusion working correctly. I have set the VMWare Network preferences page to Bridge the VMs to the Mac internal WiFi adapter.

Both VMs can ping the router, and they both get valid DHCP assigned IP addresses for the LAN. They can both connect to the Internet over the network bridge and browse and download files.

My problem is when I wish to communicate between the VM->Host, Host->VM, or VM->VM over other ports. For example if I try to SSH from OSX Host to the Debian VM, the request times out. The Windows 7 VM has a SQL Server running on it, but I cannot connect to it from the OSX host, or from the Debian VM. The Debian VM has a xsp4 web-server running on port 8080, but neither the OSX host nor the Debian VM can access it.

I can ping from Host->VM, VM->Host, and VM->VM with no issue, they can all see each other on the network, and the OSX host is sharing network folders to the Windows 7 VM without a hitch. It seems like it is allowing some communication, such as DHCP requests, Ping requests, Windows Network Shares, and Web Browsing, but is not allowing anything else. I have turned off the Windows Firewall, OSX Mavericks firewall is turned off, and the Debian VM doesn't have selinux or iptables firewalls installed.

I have found several similar question threads while researching this problem, but a lot of them are for much older versions of VMWare Fusion, or are for VMWare Workstation which has different network preferences.

I can get these scenarios working to a degree if I switch VMWare's network settings to use NAT instead of bridging, but that messes up the IP addresses of the VMs, I want to keep them on the same network.

Answer 1

For what its worth, I did eventually come up with an answer for this.

There are two different versions of VMWare Fusion 6.x, Standard and Professional. I was using the Standard version.

I changed the licence for a Professional licence, which allows you to add new network configurations in VMWare Preferences (and other cool things like that).

I added a new network with the default options, then assigned all of my VMs to that new network interface. I also turned on Promiscious mode in settings, but that might not have changed anything.

I then rebooted the VMs, set them up correctly to work on their new IP addresses, and Lo and Behold, I was able to establish connections between VM->Host and VM->VM. Exactly what I wanted.

Answer 2

I realize that this post is several years old, but since I had such a hard time with an issue similar to this, I wanted to post my answer as well, though I am not positive it really solved my issue. No problems still.

My setup:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
OS X El Capitan

My problem:

In order to allow me to clone my private school git repository using ssh keys, I have to run a bridged network connection for my Windows 10 Eduction VM using VMWare Fusion.

What I've Tried:

• http://www.kapilarya.com/windows-sockets-registry-entries-required-for-network-connectivity-is-missing
• https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1016466

And several other blog posts and forum replies, all attempting to do somewhat the same thing.

Answer:

After numerous attempts to reset just about everything you could, I took a step back and brainstormed. Then I thought, if my host machine (Macbook Pro) could connect wirelessly to the internet, this bridged connection should still work. I checked the Network Adapter's MAC Assigned to the VM's Network Adaptor and it was different from my host computer's wifi address (MAC Address). I then entered my host machine's wifi network address (MAC Address) in as the effective MAC Address for the Windows VM Network Adaptor and..voila, internet.