How to setup a vmware virtual private network

If you’re aiming to use VMware Workstation as a test environment complete with it’s own test network I suggest you make use of the “Host-only” option under the virtual machines network interface.

This will need to be done for each of the virtual machines.

Once this is done you’ll be able to create a separate network which includes it’s own DCHP, DNS, IP range etc. The host computer will be able to communicate with the virtual workstations, however they won’t be able to communicate past here without some additional configuration (e.g. using the host as a gateway).

  1. With VMWare Workstation running, select the virtual machine and then open the Settings
  2. Select the network interface “Network Adaptor”
  3. From the right select “Host-only” and click OK to save the settings.
  4. These changes will take place immediately without the need to reboot the virtual machine – however you might need to renew the IP address (ipconfig /release ipconfig /renew)