Vmware workstation – virtual network adapters missing from ipconfig, still show in networking (XP host)

vmware-workstation

here's a new one for me, and my first time posting here:

I installed VMWare workstation 7.1 on a new PC. VMWare properly installs the virtual network adapters under the Network Connections control panel, however for some reason they do not show up under ipconfig, which is very weird. They also don't appear anywhere in "route print". I don't have network connectivity to the VM.

My guesses are perhaps some conflict with Symantec AntiVirus or Symantec Client Firewall.

Tried the following things:

  • enabling TCP/IP in the virtual
    network adapters (they often get
    installed with it disabled for some
    reason)
  • Restoring defualts in the VMnetcfg gui tool (this causes an uninstall and reinstall of the virtual network adapters on the host)
  • Re-installing vmware workstation
  • Uninstalling checkpoint secureremote and then reinstalling vmware

Just to be clear, this problem is totally on the host.

In my searching for stuff about (non-vmware) adapters missing from ipconfig, I see some posts about resetting the TCP/IP stack using netsh. Looking into that next…

Thanks!

Best Answer

I guess to mark this question as answered, I need to post an answer, not a comment...

Below is the resolution that worked for me. I hate having any extra networking protocols/bindings, they always seem to cause impossible-to-troubleshoot networking problems like this.

I removed 2 networking protocols and did restore defaults in the vmware network tool, and that seemed to resolve this problem. For good measure I disabled antivirus and firewall. The 2 protocols were: Cisco Discovery Protocol Packet Driver and iPass 802.1x. These were removed by uninstalling a Cisco Voip softphone and iPass client software (for logging into pay wifi networks). Both were part of the standard build on this PC, and luckily I didn't need either. Perhaps reinstalling them after VMware would work if I needed them. Hope somebody finds this helpful!

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