[Q] How to get Windows to the Internet if I'm on dial-up?

Hi,

I have a question that I think would be pretty common. I'm a laptop user (MacBook Pro 2.16 GHz + 2 GB of RAM) and I periodically have to use a dial-up conection to get out to the Internet from my Mac while traveling. Primarily I'm using the ability to connect to the Internet via my cell phone over Bluetooth. It works pretty slick as my cell phone is EVDO capable and I end up with typically 512 kbps download and 200 kbps upload speeds.

Anyhow, I can get to the Internet just fine from the Mac, but the Windows VM I'm running in Parallels doesn't have Internet connectivity. I thought I could fix this by going into the network settings for the VM and telling it not to bridge my AirPort connection but instead to use the dial up connection, but there is no option for that in the administrative UI.

Does anyone have a solution to this problem? I have to use Parallels to do product demos of my Windows ASP.NET application that my company produces and if I can't get to the Internet, I'm sort of stuck.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions / ideas.

- Bryan

 

I think you can try to use "host only" network in Parallels and open the internet sharing from modem in the system preferences.

 

I'm not sure I understand how to do that. I thought that "host only" networking meant that it just used the 10.39.x.x address and could only communicate with the host. How would I leverage that feature to allow me to get the VM out to the Internet.

If this is an obvious "Mac" thing, I'll apologize in advance as I'm a recent "switcher". Having Parallels Beta 2 out there was what gave me the guts to take the plunge on the MacBook Pro and leave my Thinkpad behind! <grin>

 

"host only" network will give you a virtual ethernet interface which connects your real machine and the virtual machine together. Normally your real mac machine will get the x.x.x.1 address and your VM will get x.x.x.2 or higher. Internet sharing is a feature provided by OSX and can be enabled in the "system preferences"-->sharing-->internet. It will make your macbook pro work like a router and pass your VM network packets to the internet. I think there is a more detailed description in the beta6 release announcement.

PS:
I just found this portion in the FAQ post:

Q: Is NAT possible to use with the VM?
A: Not yet. But since beta6 it is possible to use Mac's standard "Internet Sharing" feature to be able to NAT the guest OS. To make it working,
- Go to Parallels Workstation->Preferences->DHCP and set Scope end address equal to Scope start address (10.37.129.1 by default).
- Go to Apple->System Preferences->Internet & Network Sharing and share your network connection with Parallels virtual adapter (usually, en2).
- Set the VM network connection type to Host-only networking in the Network Adapter properties.
- Start the VM. It should obtain the IP address automatically.

I think basiclly that is the process you need to follow. A reboot maybe also needed from my exp.