vmware bridged network interface that is only usable from the guest-system (Windows Host)

Question

I want to make a network interface only usable for a VMware Guest-System, and not for the Host System (the network is considered unsafe, and might be dangerous for the host). Under Linux this is pretty easy, after using 'ifconfig eth1 up', the interface has no ip-address(which imho makes the host system unreachable over eth1), but can be configured from the guest-system.

My Question is how to do something similar under Windows XP as host system. The network interface only works if activated, and the network-gui forces me to either use dhcp or configure an ip-adress. I want to do neither.

Used vmware-version: vmware workstation 6.5

Answer 1

You can isolate the adapter from the host operating system by unbinding all protocols and services from the network adapter except for the VMware bridge protocol.

From the Start/Run menu, enter ncpa.cpl which should open "Network Connections". Right-click the network adapter and select properties.

In the resulting properties dialog, uncheck everything except "VMware bridge" (someone care to drop a comment with the exact name, I don't have an XP machine with VMware workstation readily available).