Mac Pro: using both ethernet ports

Discussion in 'Parallels Desktop for Mac' started by lmhaffner, Sep 22, 2006.

  1. lmhaffner

    lmhaffner Junior Member

    Messages:
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    Since I had this second unused ethernet port on my Mac Pro, I was determined to try and use it for Parallels. Although using a bridge with spoofing seemed the easiest route, I decided to try and use the actual hardware MAC since OS X wasn't going to be using that port for anything. Here's what seems to work so far but improvements and comments are welcome!

    1. In the basic VM Networking Adapter config, choose Bridged -> en1.
    2. In the advanced tab, "Virtual adapter settings", put in the MAC address that matches the hardware MAC of your second interface.
    3. In OS X's Networking preference pane, configure "Built-in Ethernet 2". You might want to create a new location for this conifguration so you can switch back to the default OS X fully automatic settings whenever you want.
    4. In the TCP/IP tab, set "Configure IPv4" to off, hit the Configure IPv6 button and turn it to off as well, then flip over to the Appletalk tab and turn it off as well, if it was on.
    5. Make sure you "Apply Now".
    6. Boot your VM.
    What did not work for me, was to disable the interface in OS X's Network preferences. That took it completely away from Parallels (or likely any app, as ifconfig reported en1: as inactive) being able to use the interface.

    I did find that the interface didn't want to stay up sometimes when all three protocols are turned off in OS X. I haven't tracked down the exact situation that this happens in, but if you have problems with Parallels complaining about the interface when you boot your VM, you can enable either IPv6 or AppleTalk to force OS X to keep en1 up and running. You obviously don't want to use either of those from within Windows then, but I don't think they are installed on a device by default. You can check the interface status from a Terminal window with "ifconfig en1". Look for the "media:" line, which should read "status: active".
     

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