I was wondering what network settings are required in order to remote directly into a guestOS running on parallels Desktop.
No specific network settings are needed really. Just make sure the VM is on the same network as the host, give it a fixed IP (or a name) and connect to it from another machine on the same network.
Let me rephrase my question. I want to be able to access the VM from another network. Just like accessing a computer say via Remote Desktop when travelling and such. I can through into the equation ... if that doesnt work at all ... what about running server applications and being able to access them from the internet at large.
Same answer. If you can access your physical computer, you can also access your VM running on it. That's not a Parallels-related question. Ask in a network forum? The keyword you are looking for is "NAT".
Actually it is. Server applications running on the Mac (the host OS) are accessable from the internet. Server applications running in Parallel's VM are not accessable from the internet. Thus it is a networking setting within the VM configuration or Parallel's preferences.
You are making this needlessly complicated. Once your VM is visible in the same network as your host, connectivity to the server applications from the Internet is the same for both.
But it doesnt work. What step am I missing to have everything visible? The documentation is not clear. Nor has been any response to this thread. I am unable to connect to any server application running on the GuestOS of parallels. Not even from the hostOS. The GuestOS can connect to its own server application and can connect to the server application running on the HostOS.
I don't know which step you are missing. Did you try out all three different network settings in the VM? "Bridged Ethernet" is the one you want. What's the IP address of the VM? What happens when you ping it from the host?