Network Bridging on a Vista Host

Hi Folks,

I'm currently running Parallels 2.2 on Vista Ultimate (32 bit) on a Latitude D610 laptop. I'm having trouble getting the bridged ethernet to work on all of my client configurations:

I. Guest 1: Windows XP

1. When Host is on Ethernet, the bridging works fine and the Guest OS is able to connect.
2. When Host is on WiFi, the bridging does not work and the Guest OS recognizes its network connection as cable unplugged. However, if I manually bridge the Parrallels Host-Guest Virtual NIC and the WiFi connection, the guest OS is then able to get network connectivity. See my network settings below:
   

II. Guest 2: Ubuntu 6.10

1. When Host is on Ethernet, the Guest OS is able to connect as well.
2. When the Host is on WiFi, even in the manually bridged mode described for Guest1, the Guest OS cannot route IP traffic. It is able to pick up an IP address, but strangely, it picks up the same IP address as the Host OS. So, obviously that’s not going to work. When I set a manual IP address in Ubuntu, I still can’t ping the host OS or my gateway router.

So, at this time, I think my main issue is with the drivers for my WiFi card, which is Dell’s 1350 miniPCI internal card (Broadcom Chipset). I’m using the stock Microsoft drivers as Dell has not yet published anything new for this device for Vista. Nevertheless, I thought I’d submit this to the forum to see if anyone else is having a similar experience and hoping that someone might have a clever hack!

Thanks,
Sean

 

Hi,

I have the same problem trying to run ubuntu 6.10 bridged with my wireless network card in my dell xps m1710. Everything works smoothly while I am connected to the wired network. But I get the exact same problems as seanosteen when I use my wireless connection.

My config:

Os: Vista 32 bit Ultimate
Wireless card: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
Parallels: Version 2.2 build 2112 trial

I am currently evaluating Parallels and this is a major show stopper for me...

 

Vista Enterprise+Parallels = no network for guest.

I have a similar problem.

I have an HP NC6400 with Vista Enterprise as host.
As a Guest I have tried XP and Linux (Suse10) neither has a working network interface.
There is TX but no RX.
The difference is that selecting the NIC manually or using a wired interface does not work either.

 

Have you tried using Shared Networking?

 

File sharing works.
I have tried adding the parallels network as the private network that shares my wireless network connection using ICS. It hangs for a while and then proudly displays error (null) a meaningless error message..

 

From VISTA security log

Code integrity determined that the image hash of a file is not valid. The file could be corrupt due to unauthorized modification or the invalid hash could indicate a potential disk device error.

File Name: \Device\HarddiskVolume1\Windows\System32\drivers\pvsnet.sys
Windows Firewall was unable to notify the user that it blocked an application from accepting incoming connections on the network.

Error Code: 2


Windows Firewall was unable to notify the user that it blocked an application from accepting incoming connections on the network.

Error Code: 2

 

No network detected - Guest OS Debian Linux "Sarge"

I'm new (as of last night) to Parallels, and to Virtual Machines, although I understand what a VM is, which is why I purchased Parallels Workstation 2.2 for Windows.

I have a brand new laptop, preloaded with Windows Vista Home Premium. I installed Parallels (no problems) and created my first VM using the wizard, for a Linux guest OS. I installed Debian (from CD) and all goes well, until Debian gets to the network setup. It fails to detect the Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection (Local Area Connection) that exists. My connection to the Internet on my laptop is Broadband through a DSL modem.

Parallels created its own Paralles Host-Guest Virtual NIC connection. Under normal use of the laptop (Parallels not running) only the Broadband connection is in use. I started researching network connections and such within Vista's help files and found the Using ICS (Internet Connection Sharing), which looks initially, to address the situation.

I've not done any changing of the internet connection settings yet, but as the VM is being treated as a separate PC "connected to" a Host (my laptop), which is connected to the DSL modem, it seems that I'm in the right area to resolve the undetected network issue during the Debian installation.

If anyone has successfully installed Debian Linux "Sarge" as a guest OS in Windows Vista Home Premium with the network detected, I'd like to here from you.

Thank you.

 

Yup, i'm having the same problem here...works fine with ethernet, but i can't get an IP when I'm on wireless. I'm using vista and dell laptop as well, on i think i'm using the 1350 ethernet chipset.

Anyway, i'll keep watching this thread...i would really like wifi to be an option.

 

You are probably having a DHCP issue. This is a known problemwith Parallels Workstation 2.2. Your VM looks like a separate machine to the network, but many WiFi setups (such as all T-mobile hotspots) will only assign one address to your machine. Others (such as a hotel I stayed in in Germany) will let you log on separately with the VM, charging you duplicative fees.

The cure is coming in the next rev of Workstation, I'm told. The cure will be a true shared-network-connection such as is offered by VMWare (which I've tried, and which doesn't always work... let's hope Parallels' solution is better.)

This forum is peppered with unsuccessful work-arounds, incidentally. I've tried 'em all. Don't bother, is my advice; this is something Parallels has to fix.

I hope the next rev happens quickly, as my VM is locked out of many hotspots by this problem.

 

Network Adapter Options

As has already been stated, there have been a lot of suggestions as to how to fix the problem, most of which have not worked.

I have continued to do a lot of searching, trying to find some answers to the problem. I cam across something (sorry, but didn't bookmark it) that gave a reasonable explanation of Host-only networking in parallels. In the Network Adapter Options you have the choice of selecting Bridged Ethernet or Host-only networking.

The problem that I was having installing Linux Debian was that it couldn't identify a DHCP server. This was the case when I had the Bridged Etherenet option selected. When I opted to use Host-only networking, the installation of Debian detected the DHCP sever. I still have some other issues to work out, but at least I've made progress.

So if anyone has not tried to use the Host-only networking setting, give it a try.

 

New Dell Updated Driver fixes Network Bridging

For my Latitude D610, which I mentioned in the post that opened up this thread, Dell has released an updated driver for Vista and their Broadcom based 802.11 adapters:

Link

This update appears to have fixed all of my woes at the moment. I can get Linux client OS's to network approriately, and I no longer need to setup manual network bridges on the host OS. So, check out the network card or pc manufacturers websites for updates, particularly if you have a Broadcom based 802.11 adaptor.