Mac OS 12.6.1 host loses internet connection upon starting VMware Fusion 13 Player

[gravedee]

I can't find any posts about this problem, except for one in 2012, which was not detailed enough in its advice. I installed VMware Fusion 13 Player on my Mac Mini with OS 12.6.1 (Monterey). I do not have any VMs created yet.  As soon as I launch Fusion 13 Player, my Mac loses connection to the internet.  Well, not all connections.  I can still ping internet hosts in terminal (i.e. 8.8.8.8), by DNS name or IP address, but I cannot browse to any website, and any apps that require internet access (App Store, Music, News, Podcasts, Microsoft Onenote, etc) do not work because they cannot connect to the internet.

To resolve the problem, I log out and back in or reboot.  Interestingly, if I log out and choose the option "reopen windows when logging back in" and Fusion is running when I log out, it opens upon login and I do not experience this issue.

I've tried reinstalling Fusion.

Has anyone else experienced this issue? Any advice?

[ColoradoMarmot]

Many networks are configured to only give one ip address per physical MAC.  If you change to NAT, that should solve the problem (if that's what it is).

[gravedee]

Change to NAT where? On my Mac host or Wi-Fi router?  What setting would I look for?

[Technogeezer]

In the Fusion GUI, open the VM's Settings. Look for Network Adapter:

 

Open Network Adapter and you'll see this:

 

"Share with my Mac" is NAT networking. 

 

[gravedee]

I don't have any VMs defined yet.  I literally just installed Fusion, and upon opening it the first time (and any subsequent time) my Mac loses connection to the internet except for being able to ping in terminal (can't browse, can't use any apps that need to connect to the Internet).

[Darius Davis]

If Fusion is causing network trouble even without any VMs running, it seems likely that Fusion's own networking configuration (i.e. the addresses used for its NAT and "host only" networks) is somehow conflicting with the host's networking requirements.

Go to the Terminal and run

cat /Library/Preferences/VMware\ Fusion/networking

and examine the network configuration there under VNET_1_HOSTONLY_SUBNET/VNET_1_HOSTONLY_NETMASK and VNET_8_HOSTONLY_SUBNET/VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK, and compare those against your host's networking configuration.

If you would like assistance with interpreting it, quit Fusion completely and then run the following two commands, and copy-and-paste the output into a reply back here in the forums:

cat /Library/Preferences/VMware\ Fusion/networking
system_profiler SPNetworkDataType

 

[VMware Community Member]

I have exactly the same problem, osx 14.2.1 Sonoma, ons a MacBook Pro - intel based.

Starting up all works good. Running VMWare Fusion, not using any VM and internet is gone on the host.

[VMware Community Member]

I tested and can confirm: log out and choose the option "reopen windows when logging back in" and Fusion is running when I log out, it opens upon login and I do not experience this issue.