Upgrade to Big Sur 11.1 and Parallels kills WiFi

T

tmccabe

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This morning (2020-12-21) I upgraded my Mac to Big Sur 11.1. It had already been on Big Sur... I assume it was on 11.0 before today. After I upgraded this morning, I opened Chrome, browsed a bit, and everything was good. But then, shortly after I later opened a Parallels Windows-10-Pro VM, I lost all internet connectivity. After closing out of all Parallels windows and quitting Parallels, internet connectivity returned.

I've been able to replicate this multiple times, but the exact details are hazy. Sometimes, if I just open the Parallels control panel (no VM at all), my internet dies. Sometimes the internet continues to work until I open the VM itself. Sometimes it takes another minute or two after opening the VM, and I can access the internet in the meantime both in the Mac OS and also in the VM's Windows OS, before it finally dies. But regardless of timing, my internet always dies and always resumes when I close out of all Parallels instances and quit Parallels completely.

Since internet seems to die merely with Parallels control panel open (at least sometimes), it doesn't appear to me that the issue probably has anything to do with a particular VM's settings (like whether it's bridged or whatever).

I'm obviously going to be messing with anything and everything I can think of to get this working, but I wanted to ask if anyone knows what's up to hopefully stop me from spinning my wheels here.

Meanwhile, if I find anything out myself, I'll post it here.

Thoughts? Suggestions?
 
After some attempts I realized that the problem was related to a never seen before network on the macOS side called 'VM network interface' that once you open Parallels Desktop it comes up and kills wifi and once you shut down Parallels it is disabled, not sure how after the macos bigsur upgrade this started happening but the solution for me was simply to inactive that network permanently with Parallels Desktop open, then disable and enable again your wifi network and it started working as usual for me, hopefully this helps.
 
Some more information...

I am on Parallels 16.0.0.

I tried restarting my Mac, then opening merely the Parallels Control Center. Merely opening the Control Center after the restart killed my internet.

My Windows-10-Pro VM is configured to use "Shared Network (Recommended)" as its Network Source. Of my other VMs (none of which have I opened), only 1 is configured to be "Bridged (Default Adapter)". The others are all "Shared Network (Recommended)." I have a total of 15 VMs, two for Windows (both Shared) and the rest various flavors of Linux (1 of which, as I said, is Bridged). But again, this doesn't seem like it should make a difference since merely opening the Control Center, without any VMs running, is often enough to kill the internet connection.

I reconfigured the 1 Bridged Linux VM to be Shared like all the others. Never opened it though. Closed and quit Parallels. Double-checked that internet worked again (it did) then opened up just the Parallels Control Center. Internet died immediately.

I shut down the Mac (not just a restart). Started it again. Internet worked in Chrome. Opened the Parallels Control Center (with all VMs configured to be Shared). Internet immediately died.

I reconfigured all 15 VMs to be "Bridged (Default Adapter)." Tried the internet, but it didn't work. I quit Parallels. Internet then worked again, as expected. Then I opened the Parallels Control Center again. Internet died.

I just really don't think an individual VM's settings are relevant here.

Again, thoughts? Suggestions?
 
I think I found a solution.

I reset all the VMs to the network configurations they had originally had.

I opened up Parallels Preferences. I went into the Network tab and hit "Restore Defaults" at the bottom. I quit Parallels, tested to make sure I had internet, then opened Parallels Control Center again, expecting the internet to die. But it did not. I waited a few minutes and tried again. Internet was still good.

I opened up my Windows-10-Pro VM, expecting that to kill the internet. But it didn't. I was able to access webpages in Mac OS Chrome, and also in the VM's Chrome. I figured it would eventually die, like it had in the past.

I waited. But everything still seems to be working.

So it appears as though the problem I had was resolved by going to:
Parallels Desktop > Preferences > Network

...and hitting "Restore Defaults" at the bottom. Then maybe restarting Parallels.

I took a snapshot of the "Shared" window before hitting the "Restore Defaults" button, and it looks to me like nothing there changed. Maybe something changed in the "Host-Only" window. I don't know.

But "Restore Defaults" seems to have fixed it.

If the problem comes back, I'll post more here.
 
Well, I spoke too soon. I restarted my Mac and, after the restart, everything was back to the original problem. I tried to "Restore Defaults" again, but it didn't fix the behavior.

Unlike RamonD above, I do not see "VM network interface" showing up in my networks.

So, at present, I am still without a solution to my problem. Sigh. I'll keep messing with things.

Please post any thoughts or suggestions you may have!
 
Aha! I found "VM Network Interface" like RamonD mentioned! It was not a network per-se, but was listed with "WiFi" and "BlueTooth" on the left in the Network Preferences panel in Mac OS. I removed it, restarted the Mac, and now everything seems to be good! I even restarted a second time, and everything is still good! Hopefully RamonD is right and this will completely resolve the issue!
 
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