creating a virtual network interface (loopback adaptor)

[m7ammed]

I need to create a virtual interface on my Macbook Pro (Snow leopard) so I could connect a virtual machine to it and I could telnet into the VM using fusion. It seems I could create another ethernet interface but it wont be up unless the actual ethernet interface is up. Any help ? I need to prep for my networking certifications this is the first time I wished I had a windows laptop with me

 

[r0k]

It has been so long since I spent more than 5 minutes working on a computer without a network connection, I can scarcely remember how to proceed. (My wifi iPad doesn't count 'cuz when it's not on the network I treat it like a "giant iPod touch" and only when it's on the network do I treat it like a "computer".)

I think one technique involves bringing up the ethernet with a static ip since there's no dhcp server out there to give you one. I would think you could then ping that address both from OS X and from whatever OS you have running inside a virtualbox. Then you should be able to perform whatever network related tasks are required to prepare for your exam.

Another option that occurs to me is to plug in to any old router you have lying around and its built in dhcp server should convince your mac that it's on a real network despite the fact the only three devices are your mac, the router and whatever os you've got loaded in virtualbox.

hope this helps...

 

[m7ammed]

Thanks for the reply, the Ethernet adapter won't come up and it is already configured with a static IP. I've searched all over the internet to find a way to either create a virtual interface or a way to bring the card up without it being connected. This is the first thing I've found that windows can do and OSX can't

 

[r0k]

Thanks for the reply, the Ethernet adapter won't come up and it is already configured with a static IP. I've searched all over the internet to find a way to either create a virtual interface or a way to bring the card up without it being connected. This is the first thing I've found that windows can do and OSX can't

Windows brings its ethernet up with a "bogus" dhcp address of 169.254.something.something after DHCP times out while I seem to recall OS X comes up with 0.0.0.0 after DHCP times out. I don't think windows will bring up its ethernet unless there is media present but this might depend on ethernet drivers. Another thing to try is to connect a hub so that OS X sees the ethernet is "up" and perhaps it will also come up with the bogus 169.254... address and you will be good to go.

 

[dyn]

Both Windows and OS X will auto assign themselves an APIPA (169.254.x.x) address when there is no dhcp response. Hubs are ancient history, we're using switches now

@OP: check out the VMware Fusion community documents. There should be something about advanced networking. If you search the forums you'll get the updated scripts (that work with Fusion 3). It gives you more control over the networking in Fusion. However, you don't always need it since you have NAT, bridge and host-only (which really is host-only; unfortunately it isn't a local network on the host like you'd have with a virtual switch).