How to i create a network between VMware and host OS?

Hi friend,

I have installed VMware workstation V4.5 ..... My host OS is winXp pro SP2, and in my VMWare i have installed Win2K3 enterprise ...
I want to create a network between those OS so that could tranfers files... but how do i do that?


thanks

Well there are typically two modes that you see with any virtualization software...

"Bridged mode" which puts the guest OS's network adapter on the same network as the host, meaning if you're on a private network behind a linksys router or whatever, and your WinXP machine gets an IP of 192.168.1.50, then when you setup your Windows 2k3 server with DHCP it might grab 192.168.1.51. You would then be able to share files on this network between the two (and any other hosts on that same network).

"NAT mode" which allows you to create a virtual network behind your host (winxp). This is useful if you don't have other machines which would need to share files or access resources on the guest operating system and you just need it for local fileshare / access. In this mode you should have some settings within VMWare which describe how this will work, meaning you can configure a DCHP server on the virtual network as well possibly setup what type of access it has. I haven't used VMWare Workstation in a LONG time so I don't really recall what the options for this are, but... you should be able to find them. Assuming you end up on your host machine with an interface on the guest network (like a virtual adapter) then you should be able to access the Win2k3 machine directly via it's IP like you would anything else.