Connecting the VM with Airport card and sharing to Host

[AgiFab]

Hello all,

I'm struggling getting my network connection to work the way I want it to.

Here is my situation:

When working from home, I need to connect to my company network to access my emails, shared drives and so on. To do so, I have to run a VPN application that only works on Windows.

At home, I connect to the internet via Airport.

I use Fusion with my bootcamp drive.

When in Fusion, I can easily get this VPN to run by having the host share the airport connection with the Windows OS. I can then easily read my emails in Outlook and access the shared drives.

However, my goal is very obivous: I want to connect to the internet on the Windows OS, run the VPN and share this connection with my Mac OS X (the host).

I've read many threads and articles from people having a similar problem, but all of them were actually using an additional hardware to connect to the internet. My goal is to have my WindowsOS to connect to the internet using my built-in Airport card. This should be possible since when I boot on this WindowsOS (remember that this is a bootcamp drive), I can use the Airport card to connect to the internet.

Is there any chance I can get it to work ?

Thanks a lot for your help.

[WoodyZ]

Fusion always presents a wired adapter to the guest regardless of the presents of a WiFi Adapter on the Host. In other words the Virtual Machine will use the Host's WiFi Adapter if that adapter is the Active Adapter however in the Virtual Machine the NIC will always show as a Wired Adapter. So as long as the Host has Network Connectivity the Guest will also have connectivity through whatever Host Adapter is Active.

Is the Virtual Machine's Network set to NAT or Bridged?

Once you connect using the VPN in Windows running as a Virtual Machine are you saying you no longer can connect to the Internet in the Host?

[AgiFab]

Fusion always presents a wired adapter to the guest regardless of the presents of a WiFi Adapter on the Host. In other words the Virtual Machine will use the Host's WiFi Adapter if that adapter is the Active Adapter however in the Virtual Machine the NIC will always show as a Wired Adapter. So as long as the Host has Network Connectivity the Guest will also have connectivity through whatever Host Adapter is Active.

Is the Virtual Machine's Network set to NAT or Bridged?

Once you connect using the VPN in Windows running as a Virtual Machine are you saying you no longer can connect to the Internet in the Host?

Thanks a lot for your answer.

I had understood that whatever connection I used on the host, it would show up as wired on the guest. I'm okay with that.

I set the VM's network to Bridged.

When my VPN connection is up and running on the guest, I can still connect to the internet from the host, except that I won't be in my company network and won't have access to my emails and shared drives.

So basically, in other words my goal is to connect the host to the internet through the guest in order to benefit from the VPN.

[WoodyZ]

The first consideration is whether or not your VPN is going to allow what you what to do. In other words your company may not allow it and has the VPN or other measures configured not to allow it. If that is not an issue then the easiest way is to use a USB WiFi Adapter in the Guest and use the example in .

[AgiFab]

Thanks WoodyZ,

I've already read this document and the conclusion I reached is that I would need an additionnal hardware.

But I still don't understand why. If the host is not using the Airport hardware, why can't the guest use it ?