I don’t have much experience with VM except during lab for the principles of networking - a core component for CCNA examination - which I passed with an ‘A’. That notwithstanding, my understaning of VM configuration is pretty much that its all the same; its networking, albeit in a wholly virtual environment. I want to make sure the VMnet is configured properly before throwing CIS into the mix (so disable, or preferably uninstall, CIS).
Any chance you had VirtualBox previously installed? Apparently it doesn’t play together nicely in the sandbox with VMWare; the Bridge Network capability gets broke. The problem is only compounded when the host is running ‘Nix (this is not you but I’m just sayin’). When you installed VMWare Player, did you implement bridged connection, or perhaps host-only or NAT? Do you see vmnet-bridge process running on the guest OS?
In the directory where your virtual machine is should be a file named “something.vmx”. It is the configuration file of your VMWare Player and should contain something like “ethernet0.connectionType = (something)”; “something” should be “bridged”. Is the line there and is it “bridged”?
Ensure that the physical NIC is connected to the physical network and that the host’s network interface - local area network - is using VMware Bridge protocol.
How many physical NICs are installed on the host? In network connections do you see VMNet0? In the Virtual Network Editor is VMNet0 being used for the bridge? Is it being bridged to a physical NIC or a virtual adapter (perhaps one implemented from Virtual Box)? Is the VMNet bridging configuration set to auto? If so try setting it manually to the physical NIC. If there are multiple NICs in the host, try disabling all other NICs except the one VMNet 0 should use.
Of course, you must stop all guest OS before making any changes to VMNet mapping. Secondly, if changes need to occur, I’d suggest to uninstall CIS.
After making any changes and restarting the guest OS you should see a vmnet-bridge process on the guest OS.
You should be able to test network connectivity by opening a terminal in the guest OS and pinging: local loopback, the guest OS’s virtual NIC IP address, the physical network’s gateway and finally some URL. Since the network connection is bridged, you’ll have to specify the guest’s IP address, mask, gateway and DNS. Keep in mind the guest OS’ gateway is the router of the network that the host is a node of (not the host itself). And if DHCP is enabled for the guest OS, the DHCP address would be the physical network router (or network DHCP server) address.
Also, be aware that although VMWare Server lets the user configure the IP address assignments and DHCP ranges from within the application, VMWare player doesn’t. This can be bit of an issue if you have a VM that’s been configured with a static IP address in a non-default range. By default, VMware Player uses 192.168.x.x IP address to assign IP address for your guest vm images. Again, this is not you, but I’m just sayin’. But the utility needed - ‘vmnetcfg.exe’ - isn’t installed by default when VMWare Player is installed. It can be found in the VMWare Player install directory, i.e., ‘C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Player’. You can configure the IP Ranges to be whatever you wish using this utility.
Furthermore, when making network configuration changes for the VM, the VM shouldn’t be powered on.
If the foregoing can’t be gotten to work correctly w/OUT CIS, then I’d suggest resinstalling the VMWare adapter interface, i.e., bridge, host, NAT. It can be done w/out reinstalling VMWare from scratch.
If virtual network connectivity has been ascertained, then I’d reinstall CIS and recheck connectivity. If the network topology is sound - based on verfied connectivity - then any subsequent problems must necessarily lie with the firewall.