Connect and Set Up the Network Adapter

You can connect the virtual network adapter for the virtual machine and set the type of networking to use.

Prerequisites

Fusion does not support bridged networking to a VPN. If you have set a VPN to have the top priority in your Mac system preferences, lower its priority if you intend to use bridged networking with autodetect in your virtual machine.

Procedure

Select Window > Virtual Machine Library.
Select a virtual machine in the Virtual Machine Library window and click Settings.
Under Removable Devices in the Settings window, click Network Adapter.
Select the Connect Network Adapter check box.

Fusion retains and reapplies the setting you select when you start up the virtual machine.

Select the networking type.

Option	Description
Share with my Mac	The virtual machine does not have its own IP address on the external network. The virtual machine obtains a private IP address from the VMware virtual DHCP server.
Bridged Networking items	You see various choices for bridging to one of the network interfaces on your Mac, including wireless and Ethernet. Using one of these options is often the easiest way to give your virtual machine access to a network. When you select any of the network types other than Autodetect, you can click System Preferences to see details of the physical network settings for your host system.
Private to my Mac	The virtual machine is connected only to the host operating system, using a virtual private network, which is not visible outside your Mac.

Option

Description

Share with my Mac

The virtual machine does not have its own IP address on the external network. The virtual machine obtains a private IP address from the VMware virtual DHCP server.

Bridged Networking items

You see various choices for bridging to one of the network interfaces on your Mac, including wireless and Ethernet. Using one of these options is often the easiest way to give your virtual machine access to a network.

When you select any of the network types other than Autodetect, you can click System Preferences to see details of the physical network settings for your host system.

Private to my Mac

The virtual machine is connected only to the host operating system, using a virtual private network, which is not visible outside your Mac.

(Fusion Pro) Use Advanced options to make the selected virtual machine's network adapter prompt for permission before running in promiscuous mode.

If the check box is not selected, the virtual machine does not prompt for confirmation before allowing this network adapter to run in promiscuous mode. This feature is useful when creating nested ESXi servers with Fusion Pro.