How To Connect A VMware Virtual Machine To The Internet

How To Connect A VMware Virtual Machine To The Internet

The virtual networking components in VMware Workstation and VMware Player includes virtual switches, virtual network adapters, the virtual DHCP server, and the NAT device. You can configure any of the following types of virtual network connections for a VMware virtual machine:

• Bridged
• NAT
• Host-only
• Custom

In this post, we will only explain how to use Bridged network connection to connect a VMware virtual machine to the Internet (physical network). If you are interested to know more about the VMware network connections types, read the following article.
Understating and Configuring VMware Network Connections Types
In order to connect your VMware virtual machine to the Internet, you need to use the Bridged network connection. Bridged network connection connects a virtual machine to a network by using the network adapter on the host system. If the host system is on a network, this option is often the easiest way to allow the virtual machine to access to the physical network as well as to the Internet.
Note: You can also connect VMware virtual machine to the Internet using the NAT network connection.

Connecting a VMware Virtual Machine to the Internet

To connect a VMware virtual machine to the Internet using the bridged network connection, you need to perform the following steps:

1. Select the desired virtual machine and open the Virtual Machine Settings.
2. On the Virtual Machine Settings window, under the Hardware tab, select Network Adapter.
3. Select the Bridged: Connected directly to the physical network radio button and close the Virtual Machine Settings window.
   

   Note: If you use the virtual machine on a laptop, select the Replicate physical network connection state check box. This setting allows the IP address to be renewed when you move from one wired/wireless network to another.

4. Now, open the network adapter properties of your virtual machine and configure either the static IP address or obtain the TCP/IP settings from the DHCP server depending on your Service Provider’s settings.
5. Close the network connection window.
6. Now, you can see that your VMware virtual machine is connected to the Internet as shown in the following figure.

That’s all you need to do to connect a VMware virtual machine to the Internet. Hope, it helped you. Please drop your queries in the comment box, if got stuck anywhere or want to help us to improve the article. Please do share the article.