Internet Access Via Proxy Server in VMware Guest Machine

 

Setting up and giving internet access via proxy server to VMware guest machine is very easy with following steps.  This method shows how to share host’s internet connection which is assigned to host machine IP address only in proxy server.  This method works only with proxy servers where you can assign internet access to IP addresses.
When  host is  connected to physical internet proxy server via network cable,  guest VMware virtual machine can access internet with NAT  network connection type.
Setting up Internet through NAT is very simple without any additional settings on host or guest.
1)      Make sure guest OS network type is set to NAT.
In virtual machine settings, check network adapter properties.

2)      Leave the IPv4 address to obtain automatically in guest machine. So, guest machine will get a non routable IP address from VMware workstation DHCP service. Check the IP address of guest machine.

3)      Don’t bother about different types of IP address of guest and host physical network. Still your VMware guest machine can communicate to host physical network adapter and outside world through host’s network adapter. Try to ping your internet proxy server.
in this example,
host’s physical IP is – 192.5.2.51
Internet proxy IP is – 192.5.2.53
But, my guest machine got different IP.  Guest machine can ping to internet proxy server now.

4)      That’s it, now give the proxy setup on internet browser in VMware guest machine.
( in Internet explorer, Tools -> Internet Options -> Connection -> LAN settings -> Proxy Server)

5)      Internet will be working now in guest virtual machine.  Even though,  your proxy server is allowing internet connection for host IP address only, it working without adding guest IP address on proxy server.  Proxy server will detect as requests coming from physical host computer.

This is the easiest method to give Internet access via proxy in VMware guest machine
Also, guest can communicate internet proxy server if you select ‘Bridged’ network type. But, in this method guest virtual machine should have a same IP address range as host machine either manually or automatically. Then you have to add the new IP address of guest machine to internet proxy server to allow internet access which will have extra work.