Windows/Vmware workstation NIC

VMWare workstation NIC

This article describes how you can assign a physical NIC to virtual machines under VMWare workstation.

Let us use my PC as an example

My computer has 3 NIC cards, 1 Wireless, 1 Gigabit eithernet, and one 10/100 eithernet.

The problem

You can safely skip this section, it simply describes why i need NIC cards dedicated to virtual machines

I use file sharing, and therefore, my computer must always be connected to the router so people can take files from me, I also use a linksys router because it is better than Windows ICS.

So i want to be on the router with everyone else, But i also need to use ICS to share an internet connection with another computer, when i plugin my USB doungle in the PC, it gives me a fourth network interface "Local Area Connection 4" and i use the 10/100 card to share a connection from the USB internet

To tell you the truth, this is an expensive solution involving an extra copy of windows, i have one extra so i don't mind, but you should be aware that the copy of windows inside the VM must activate (Or it will not function after 30 days).

The solution

Anyway, the solution i have used here is a simple one, A Virtual machine gets access to the USB device and access to one of the NIC cards (The 10/100) and does ICS connecting to the routers internet port, the other NIC gets a connection from the router, therefore getting internet, and the wireless card, i will do nothing with it, but NIC cards are NIC cards when you think in logical terms, they don't introduce any complications to the setup and feel free to use it.

So here is how i do it

1- The bare metal host machine has Windows Vista 64 bit with VMWARE installed, enough ram to give away 1GB to the VM

2- Setup a virtual Windows Vista Machine inside VMWARE

3- In the VMWARE workstation drop down menu, Click Edit then Virtual Network Editor

4- In the menu that appears, Chose the tab with the label "Host Virtual network Mapping", then from the VMNet2 drop down menu, chose the physical NIC you wish to attach to the virtual machine

Once the above is done, we need to tell the Virtual Machine to use that NIC, so edit the Virtual Machine settings, and check the radio button for Custom: Specific virtual network, and from the drop down menu, chose VMnet2.

Power your VM on and you are good to go.