Shared Network Stops Working

Discussion in 'Installation and Configuration of Parallels Desktop' started by KristianS1, May 26, 2020.

  1. KristianS1

    KristianS1 Member

    Messages:
    42
    I am wondering if they have any plans to fix the 'Shared Network' problems? I have wasted countless hours trying to fix the problems, going through long problem solving processes to no avail. It manifests itself with Windows guest hosts not being able to join the network on startup of the VM using the shared network. Using a bridged network works fine, but for all sort of reasons, this isn't ideal for some users - including me.

    This seems to be a problem that Parallels never seems to fix, and stretches back (in some form) to at least 2008!
    http://slaptijack.com/software/parallels-shared-networking-stopped-working/
    https://forum.parallels.com/threads...k-config-suddenly-has-self-assigned-ip.19407/

    I have found what a workaround using the UI avoiding the need to delete things as SU, which is to open up the global networking preferences for Parallels (Parallels Desktop Menu->Preferences->Network) and toggling the 'Enable IPv4 DHCP' and 'Enable IPv6 DHCP' options both off, and then back on again. Users however really shouldn't have to struggle with an issue like this. I do wonder if it's something to do with the use of VPNs on host operating systems, or switching networks (in the case of a laptop): using a shared network does seem to be more fragile when in such circumstances, but I haven't investigated this, and could just be paranoia at this point.
     
    GiacomoC1 likes this.
  2. Hello, thank you for sharing your workaround.
    Could you please provide us with the detailed issue description in order to reproduce it on our side and with the troubleshooting steps that you've performed.
    Any details will be very appreciated.
     
  3. KristianS1

    KristianS1 Member

    Messages:
    42
    @Maria@Parallels
    There aren't any reproduction steps, other than Shared Networking sometime fails to work on VM startup. Bridged network will work, but that's no good if you don't want a bridged network (see post above)

    It remains broken until you either (as detailed in my post above):
    • Manually deleting the Parallels DHCP cache file as a super user
    • Toggle the IPv4 and IPv6 DHCP network settings off and on again in the Parallel Network preferences (which I presume has the same effect as above)
    So basically it seems like the Parallels DCHP server has a bug. Judging by the number of forums posts, and blog posts and their dates, this issue has been going on for at least a decade!
     
  4. Thank you for your detailed reply. Is it possible to reproduce the issue and collect the tech report right after that?
    (and post the report's ID here). We will check the detailed tech.data from this report for the further investigation.
     
  5. GiacomoC1

    GiacomoC1 Bit poster

    Messages:
    4
    Hello,
    I'm a student and new to parallels and to this forum. I was testing parallels yesterday for the first time and also today I was using it for running linux fedora on my Mac.
    I also have this 'Shared Network' problem. Yesterday it was fine today fedora only had internet access through 'Bridged Network'.
    The workaround did not work for me unfortunately. It seems that the issue is still not addressed? The 'Shared Network' feature is important to me.
    I recorded the tech report: the ID is 381459415.
     
  6. GiacomoC1

    GiacomoC1 Bit poster

    Messages:
    4
    I did find out a first hint:
    when connecting to other wifi networks e.g. hotspot of my smartphone or university network the problem disappeared. Strangely my Mac still had a stable and working internet connection and do other devices on my home network but parallels desktop was not able to let the fedora linux through.
    Maybe it is a DNS problem? I would appreciate any help that leads to a solution.
     
  7. Hi, did you ake any changes before you've got an issue with the network?
    Or just switched back and force between network modes?
     
  8. GiacomoC1

    GiacomoC1 Bit poster

    Messages:
    4
    Hello, I was not aware of the different network modes first and I did not change anything.
    Only when the problems occurred, I read the wiki about the network modes and tried everything possible to change. I also reinstalled Fedora, deactivated little snitch (firewall) and reinstalled it. I reinstalled parallel 17 and deleted all related data under /Library/Preferences or /Library/Caches/... then I tried to install Parallels 16. It was also that it stopped working only when I connected to my network at home. It seems that even though all my devices have normal internet access, parallels can't handle the combination of MacBook + my router (maybe DNS failure or DHCP problems? not sure right now). With the cell phone hotspot or university network it works fine. It may be that I already tried to set some things when I created the tech report.
     
  9. GiacomoC1

    GiacomoC1 Bit poster

    Messages:
    4
    Some more information:
    I found out that using bridged network in default adapter or WiFi also had connection issues with some special domains like github.com using the network at home. This was really driving me crazy!
    Again, when switching to other networks no issues at all in any network setting. It seems to be some DNS problem, because pinging random domains inside the virtual machine doesn't give me an error (which I get if I disconnect the network in e.g. parallels settings or physically) but just waits for a long time and then it just crashes.

    Funfact: if I want to clone some repo on GitHub and I initially was connected to my private home network the download doesn't start. But when I notice it and connect my Mac to my phone hotspot git magically starts downloading the repo, no restart of parallels, fedora or git clone needed, just connecting my Mac to another network.
    Since macOS and all other apps are working fine I still see the issue on parallels side. I really would be happy if you can solve this issue.
     

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