How do i connect my host browser to my guest web server

Question

I have VMWare workstation 8 installed on a windows 7 machine. I have RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6 running as a guest OS under VMWare. I am trying to get my web browser from windows 7 host to connect with my guest RHEL web server? I've disabled windows firewall.

VMware's Network settings options are as follows: Bridged, NAT, Host Only, or Custom.

The IP address of the guest OS varies depending on the network option I choose; When I type the variable IP address into the browser of my guest OS, it resolves to the default Apache page. However, when I try this in my host's browser I cannot connect to the server.

I am not using a physical Ethernet connection. I am connected wirelessly to the internet using WiFi network adapter. However, I should be able to connect to the guest OS server without the use of the internet correct? I believe I should be able to use the virtual network adapter to route to the virtual guest server all inside of my machine locally.

i ran ipconfig in windows command prompt which gave the below results:

** note that i am using bridged settings in vmware currently.**

Windows IP Configuration

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection 3:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : gateway.2wire.net Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::58f3:b55f:b8d9:ed7e%16 IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.71 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : memphis.edu

Ethernet adapter VMware Network Adapter VMnet1:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::5899:5315:29c1:3772%24 IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.91.1 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter VMware Network Adapter VMnet8:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::5031:ad1d:7cb0:4161%25 IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.244.1 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Tunnel adapter isatap.{CBB0C40D-6807-4838-A0FC-A6ED59C79F7A}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Tunnel adapter isatap.gateway.2wire.net:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : gateway.2wire.net

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 11:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Tunnel adapter isatap.{73368103-5EF9-45EF-89E8-70BD3282EECE}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Answer 1

NAT is rarely the best choice for a VM machine and I really can't understand why it's generally the default. Change it to bridged mode (or whatever that's called on VMWare products) and your problems will simply disappear.

Answer 2

This is very difficult to answer when we don't know the network settings for your VMWare instance. The basic thing is that you probably want to bridge the guest's NIC with your host NIC (sometimes done with a "TAP" interface, though I'm unaware whether VMWare uses this standard terminology). Then assign an IP address to the guest that is on the same subnet as your host. With both "machines" on the same IP subnet, your browser just uses IP as it would with any remote host.

The fact that you can ping is good. But more diagnostics are required.

If you can't establish socket connections when you think you should, check your host's ARP table and make sure the entry for the guest's IP address is what the guest is answering with. Otherwise, you might have another host on your network that is using the same IP.

Have you confirmed that you can also reach the guest's web browser from a client running on the guest? You can try to establish other socket connections from the host to the guest, using tools like netcat.