Networking: shared ko, bridged ok

Shared used to work OK.
I did not made update on windows side, I suspect leopard side.
I tried all relevant settings fond on threads here. In shared, no ping cross the NAT (10.211.55/24).

Bridged is ok but less secure.

One sidenote: I have two VM with same XP/SP2 one can work in shared if I add a DNS server IP in OSX network preference at parallels interface. Does not work on other VM.

 

Make sure that MAC addresses for VM are different
see details in Parallels Desktop for Mac user guide from http://www.parallels.com/en/download/file/doc/Parallels_Desktop_for_Mac_User_Guide.pdf on page 184

 

Mac Addresses are different (Parallels set this ok). However this setting is only relevant when running the two VM simultaneously, right?
In my tests I run them one after the other. I'll have to check both simultaneously.
What do you think of the fact that adding a DNS helps somehow/sometime?
What could prevent the Parallels NAT traversing (i.e. ping to NAT subnet - 10.211.55.0 is ok, ping to host subnet - 10.37.129.0 is not) ?

 

Please put here ipconfig /all from both Windows VMs

 

Well, after more testing, I must say that I added confusion with my remark on DNS. It was not relevant. I though it worked to add it but it was because toggled network connectivity to bridged while VM running, using the Parallels Devices menu.

So, here I am: both VM act the same, shared ko, bridged ok, host-only ok. Below are active settings looking an normal.
In shared, no ping cross the NAT and no DNS reply from 10.211.55.1

First VM
Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : ie6
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Parallels Network Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1C-42-EA-C6-72
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.211.55.4
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.211.55.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.211.55.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.211.55.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : vendredi 5 septembre 2008 21:52:37
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : vendredi 12 septembre 2008 21:52:37

Second VM:

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : mbdd26
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Parallels Network Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1C-42-12-16-F0
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.211.55.5
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.211.55.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.211.55.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.211.55.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : vendredi 5 septembre 2008 21:26:12
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : vendredi 12 septembre 2008 21:26:12

relevant OS X ifconfig entries:

en2: flags=8963<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet6 fe80::21c:42ff:fe00:0%en2 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x7
inet 10.37.129.2 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 10.37.129.255
ether 00:1c:42:00:00:00
media: autoselect status: active
supported media: autoselect
en3: flags=8963<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet6 fe80::21c:42ff:fe00:1%en3 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x8
inet 10.211.55.2 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 10.211.55.255
ether 00:1c:42:00:00:01
media: autoselect status: active
supported media: autoselect

 

It looks to be correct, what about antivirus on Windows side?

 

I have Norton security scan on one VM only. It's just a scanner, not an active background filter. And it used to work ok in shared until recently.
Q. How can I test the Parallels NAT ?
Q. Why the 10.211.55.1 gateway/DNS does not reply to DNS query? Because forwarding fails? Then it's in the OS X layer, right?

 

solved

OK, I found the culprit: psvnatd was blocked from internet by LittleSnitch. I had a rule to allow it to access DNS, but as my provider changed DNS IP this rule was too restrictive. I must have missed the LS request for accessing the new DNS IP. I widened the rule to any port 53.

Posted here for future reference.

I still don't understand why this prevented pinging host address on 10.37.129.2