When running VMware Workstation on a Windows system to run Linux guest VMs, there are a number of issues that can prevent your Linux host from reaching the network. What follows are some notes and troubleshooting tips:

  1. IU Secure Wireless - You definitely do NOT need or want to do anything special to set up networking in the VM when using the IU Secure network. The host (Windows) system takes care of the connection to the wireless network so you can safely ignore any instructions you may find in the UITS KB about setting up IU Secure wireless access under linux. As long as your Windows system is working on the IU Secure network, you are all set there.

  2. Networking Type - With VMware Workstation, there are 3 types of networking available: bridged, NAT, and host-only. You will want to use NAT networking. It is actually possible to use bridged networking but we do not recommend it and if you decide to use this you are on your own.

  3. Windows Services - There are a number of VMware services that need to be running on the Windows system. Specifically, you will definitely need the VMware NAT and DHCP services to be running. We recommend that you enable all the VMware services and set them to 'automatic' mode.

  4. Firewalls - We have seen firewall settings prevent the VM from reaching the host VMware DHCP service. Specifically, the McAfee firewall is known to cause problem so you should get rid of that completely. We've not see problems specifically with the standard Windows firewall or with Symantec AV but you could try turning both off for debugging.