Shared Networking grayed out

Both Shared Networking and Host Only are grayed out. I want to be able to use my Bluetooth connected (to the Mac) cellphone internet connection for both the Mac and Parallels XP. You cannot do this with Bridged Ethernet.

MacBook Pro 17" Core 2 Duo, Mac OSX 10.4.9, Parallels Build 3188. Have rebooted both.

What should I check?

Bill Halberstadt

 

http://forum.parallels.com/post49878-2.html

If that doesnt work, use the Search function, this question has been asked and answered many many times.

 

I have done a search on this forum and have not found a solution yet. I have uninstalled Parallels and reinstalled it, and Shared and Host Only are still grayed out. Unfortunately, doing the uninstall/reinstall resulted in voiding my XP certification - grrrrrr.

In case it matters, I am using a Boot Camp partition for the disk image.

I do not see any new ports in the Mac's Network preference pane. In fact, I have never seen any there that looked like they were related to Parallels. I do see two with identical names of "Ethernet Adaptor ((null))", which I cannot delete, but I don't know if that is related.

 

To add some clues: I used the "ifconfig" command in Terminal (in Mac OSX) and while I see en0 and en1 entries, there is no en2 or en3. This is after reinstalling Parallels yet again (from a fresh download), rebooting the Mac and checking Network Prefs for any mention of new ports (there is none). I have repaired permissions. I do not have Internet Sharing on. I have tried renaming the existing "Ethernet Adapter ((null))" ports to "Ethernet Adapter (en2)" and "...(en3)", but this has not helped either. The "Bridged Ethernet" setting does work when I have Airport connectivity to the internet, but I need "Shared Networking" otherwise.

From what little I understand about shared networking, it would appear that the Parallels installer is not setting up something correctly on the Mac side, to enable the en2 and en3 ports. However, I do not know how to proceed from here.

 

I understand nothing about shared networks, but since no one else is suggesting anything:

In Mac OS System Preferences>Sharing>Internet, in the "Share your connection from:" pull-down menu do you have "Built-in Ethernet" checked? Also, in "To computers using" do you have Built-in Ethernet, Ethernet Adaptor (en2) and Ethernet Adaptor (en3) checked?

David

 

It was my understanding that internet sharing should not be on, and if that is true, I would think that it would not matter what selections are made in the sharing window mentioned. In case it matters, though: while Ethernet Adaptors en2 and en3 are possible choices in the "Share your connection from" drop-down, neither of them appears in the "To computers using" box.

If anyone has information that internet sharing should be on, or that it matters what selections are shown in this window, please chime in.

 

I've had no problem using Shared Networking. Make certain that internet access is happening correctly on the Mac side FIRST, then try to set up access from within Parallels. Look into Paralles/Preferences/Network to make certain that you have selected to "Enable DHCP scope for shared networking".

 

Yes, Internet access has always worked on the Mac side, whether Airport or cellphone/Bluetooth. DHCP Scope is enabled for both Shared Networking and Host Only.

 

As I said, I don't understand shared networking at all--those are just the settings that work with my setup (MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo, 10.4.9; Parallels 3188).

David

 

halberstadt: can you delete the Null interfaces after you have uninstalled and rebooted (before reinstall) ?

If you can , try another reboot, then reinstall... If this doesnt help, try creating en2 and en3 manually yourself. They should be just normal ethernet interfaces with dhcp asssigned addresses. You may have to boot again after creating them to get Parallels to setup the addressing.

 

OK, I reactivated XP, via the nice lady in India, shut it down, then uninstalled Parallels and rebooted the Mac. The entries in Network Pref pane (originally both named "Ethernet Adaptor ((null))" and renamed by me to "Ethernet Adaptor (en2)" and "...(en3)") were then grayed out (had been black until now). I was able to delete them both.

Reinstalled Parallels, rebooted Mac, went to Mac's Network Prefs pane and saw the message that two new ports were discovered. Much joy. Both new ports had the same name of "Ethernet Adaptor ((null))", with "On" boxes checked. Looked at port settings and saw both had DHCP selected (any other settings needed at this point?). Rebooted Mac. Launched Parallels and both "Shared Networking" and "Host Only" are STILL grayed out. No Joy. Started XP, got "activation needed" AGAIN... grrrrrr. Reinstalled Parallels Tools, restarted XP, shut down XP, rebooted Mac. Shared Networking and Host Only still grayed out.

"ifconfig" via Mac Terminal does not show an en2 or en3 port.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I still need help from the experts. Sure wish, though, that there was some way to avoid the repeated XP activations.

Bill Halberstadt

 

I'm not sure how to "create en2 and en3". In Network Preferences/Network Port Configurations, the "New" button allows setting up a new configuration for an existing port (the selection list shows only the existing ports). Do you mean to set a new configuration for the "Built-in Ethernet" port? Not sure how to make that be "en2" or "en3". Or, did you mean to create new ports, which I do not see how to do?

Bill Halberstadt

 

sys prefs > network > click "show" and select "Network Port Configurations" > Click "New" > in the "Name" field put en2 and select "Built-in Ethernet" as the "Port" > click "OK"

repeat for en3 and click "Apply Now" then try another reboot

 

Thanks for sticking with this problem, darkone. However, I did exactly that, and no joy. Do we know that Parallels is looking for a specific port configuration named "en2"? For a working setup, what are the port configuration names displayed in Network Prefs? In my case, Parallels installation created the two configurations named "Ethernet Adaptor ((null))", but I cannot find any way to see which port(s) they are configurations for. Using your suggestion, I have created two new configurations for the port "Built-in Ethernet", with configuration names "en2" and "en3", but that didn't help. In fact, if the ones that the Parallels installation created do point to "Built-in Ethernet", I could get the same effect by just changing the configuration names to en2 and en3.

For a correctly working installation, does the terminal command "ifconfig" show actual ports named en2 and en3? If so, we are only diddling with configurations, when we don't have the correct ports to configure (I think).

Bill Halberstadt

 

mine does , yes.. en2 and en3 using ifconfig

 

So, we seem to be left with the conclusion that the Parallels installer fails to create the two ports en2 and en3, but then does create two configurations, which have "((null))" in their name, presumably because en2 and en3 were not found.

Methinks it is time for some sage insight from the Parallels technical folks.

Bill Halberstadt

 

What Mac system and network adapter are you using? I remember some prior threads about "challenges" being involved for some folks using either Mac Pro systems and/or external modems/adapters.

I'm using a MBP C2D and have literally never had anything like this kind of problem with networking.

 

I described my system in the first post in this thread. It, like yours, is a MBP C2D.

Bill Halberstadt

 

Vista? Boot Camp?

 

Please read the first post in this thread. I also stated there that I run XP and a Boot Camp partition.