Bridged mode on WIndows 11 ARM will not connect

[Matt Ronsman]

Shared mode networking does connect and work but I need to try Bridged mode to test out a VPN client.  When I switch to Bridged regardless of Autoconnect or Wi-Fi I get:

Could not connect 'Ethernet0' to virtual network '/dev/vmnet0'.

I do not see a VMware Bridge Protocol for the NIC.

When I try to add the service I get:

Nor do I see a netbridge.inf file in the VMware folder.  

Any help is much appreciated!!!

[Technogeezer]

What model Mac are you using?

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Paul Rockwell (technogeezer)
vExpert 2026 (3x)
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[Matt Ronsman]

MacBook Pro M5

[Technogeezer]

Bridged networking is handled by Fusion's virtual networking configuation, not anything associated with the vmxnet3 driver.

 I had a feeling that you'd say that you have a M5 MacBook Pro…

If so, bridged networking over Wi-Fi won't work. That model Mac has the Apple in-house developed N1 wireless chip. There are many reports for Fusion (and other hypervisors such as Parallels) where bridged networking over Wi-Fi doesn't work in Macs that have this wireless chip. Evidently Apple changed something with their wireless chip that keeps bridged networking from working. No workaround has been found other than bridging over a wired Ethernet network.

Since you're a Broadcom employee, is there any way you can get the attention of the Fusion developers on this? It's been reported here, but we have no way of knowing if anyone from the Fusion team has noticed or filed an internal ticket on it.  This issue a show-stopper for anyone using those Macs and any future Macs that might use that wireless chip. 

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Paul Rockwell (technogeezer)
vExpert 2026 (3x)
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[Karthigaasri R T]

As per https://github.com/utmapp/UTM/issues/7658#issuecomment-4658286520, this is already fixed by Apple in macOS27. Can you please recheck after an update.

[Matt Ronsman]

Will have to check that out once it is available after September.  I am sure it will be a little later than that until Broadcom IT certifies it for use for employees.  Good to know it is an Apple issue and not a Broadcom issue.

[Bohdan Kostiuk]

Hey, I have had similar issues.

Here is my issue report with fix proposal:

https://community.broadcom.com/vmware-cloud-foundation/discussion/vmware-fusion-windows-11-arm-sustained-tcp-failure-with-vmxnet3-offloads

Maybe it will help