When you install Workstation Pro, two virtual network adapters, VMware Network Adapter VMnet1 and VMware Network Adapter VMnet8, are added to the configuration of the host operating system. You might want to disconnect one or both of these virtual network adapters to improve performance on the host system.

Because broadcast packets must go to these adapters, the presence of virtual network adapters has a slight performance cost. On Windows networks, browsing the network might be slower than usual. In some cases, these adapters interact with the host computer networking configuration in undesirable ways.

You can reconnect a host virtual network adapter after you disconnect it.

Prerequisites

  • Determine whether you are going to use the host virtual network adapter. The host system uses VMware Network Adapter VMnet1 to connect to the host-only network and it uses VMware Network Adapter VMnet8 to connect to the NAT network.
  • On a Windows host, log in as an Administrator user. Only an Administrator user can change network settings in the virtual network editor.
  • On a Linux host, log in as root. You must enter the root password to use the virtual network editor.

Procedure

  1. Start the virtual network editor on the host system.
    Option Description
    Windows host Select Edit > Virtual Network Editor.
    Linux host Select Applications > System Tools > Virtual Network Editor. The menu path might be different for your version of Linux. You can also start the network editor from the command line by using the vmware-netcfg command.
  2. Select the virtual network.
  3. Deselect Connect a host virtual adapter to this network to disconnect the host virtual network adapter from the virtual network.
  4. Click OK to save your changes.