Connect Virtual PC to Internet
Posted by CJ on February 2, 2007
I have been using VPC for a few years now and I am still learning lots about using it. After upgrading to Vista I was unable to connect my VPC images to the Internet to activate the OS and download system updates. I was scratching my head changing my VM network adapter settings to Shared Networking (NAT) or to my wireless adapter but no matter what I did I couldn’t get an Internet connectivity from my VPC.
So I went to the person I always go to when I am stuck (this is the person after google) Mr Mark Daunt. He solved it in about a minute asking me if I have installed the Virtual Machine Network Service on my wireless adapter….the what???
So he showed me where to install it and wholla…I could connect 
My LAN adapter had the Virtual Machine Network Service installed but my wireless adapter didn’t.
1/ Navigate to your physical network adapter that you want your VPC to use and click the Install button
2/ Highlight Service and click Add
3/ If you don’t see the Virtual Machine Network Service click Have Disk button (mine displays as I had already added it).
4/ Navigate to the following directory: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual PC\Utility\VMNetSrv and select the VMNetSrv.inf file and Ok your way back out.
5/ This should install the service and you should now see the service in your connection properties
6/ In your VPC make sure you set your network adapter to the adapter that you just installed the Virtual Machine Network Service
7/ Internet connection from VPC :)
Here is a good blog post for a couple of other issues if Virtual Machine Network Service is installed but you still can’t get network connectivity.
Another good article by Microsoft explaining the virtual machine network settings.
Patrick said
Thanks a million!!!!
Jason said
Thank you sir!
Michael said
Tryed everything under the sun, and still can’t connect to the net using virtual pc.
Im run “XP pro/Sp2″ and “virtual pc 2007″. I spent the last two months figuring what the?????!@#$…….
nothing…..
every setting on earth I’ve tryed…….
nothing……
used to connect……
not no more………..
theory……. Gates hates p2p software running under his wondows OS.
I’m checking out the lunix commun.
Freespire is looking pretty good.
So is Linkspire…….
Both are more amazing then MS windows
My head hurts…….
Robin said
Hi,
Thanks, this worked for me. Just had to do a “Repair” connection at the end of it.
Robin
Martin said
just wondering can the virtual pc connect with out the host connecting to the net??
thanks
martin
William said
Wow, was this ever an excellent article. I’ve never used Virtual PC before, but after getting my new Dell laptop with Vista, I thought I’d like to have access to XP so I can continue working on some training projects on the XP operating system. I installed Virtual PC 2007, installed a copy of XP, but ran into a roadblock by not having access to the Internet. This article was splendid, and thank you VERY MUCH for the screen shots which helped me understand just exactly what you were doing along each step. Your solution worked, and I’ve very grateful for giving back to the whole Internet community the way you did.
William
brokenbokken said
I found your article and it worked instantly to solve my connectivity issues. Thank you very much!
Barry said
I installed Virtual PC 2007 on Vista – loaded XP Pro image and everything worked very nicely. XP managed to get its own IP and connected to the internet. However, I have an issue that I hope someone can help with. I have SQL Server install on my Vista machine and I want the XP virtual PC to connect to it. My XP virtual pc cannot see this database, it cant even ping the vista machine – even though it can reach the internet and the ip allocated is obviously in the same range. Is there anything under vista I need to do to allow pings/remote access? I have configured the SQL Server Surface Area Configuration to accept remote connections from TCP and Named Pipes..
MattNC said
Very helpful article. Thanks! Another thing you might need to do is manually release and renew your IP address. To do this, open a command prompt in your virtual machine by going to Start > Run and type ‘cmd’ (without the quotes). In the command window, type the following (also without the quotes):
‘ipconfig /release’ then press Enter. After your IP is released, type ‘ipconfig /renew’ and you should see that your machine now gets an IP address. Try connecting to the internet again, it should work.
Relieved VPCer said
Bravo!! Your little article helped in a BIG way!! I never would have thought of that esoteric fix in a million years. Thanks so much for not only the answer, but the foolproof screenshots that depict it so well. You saved me!!
Jennifer said
thanks buddy…worked perfectly
Javo said
Men thanks so very much for this article, you saved me. I was almost burning my hole laptop when I read this article….
Keep walking…
thanks you and Mr Mark Daunt too!!
thang.ccnp said
Thanks for this article.
Pratik said
Thanks a lot man…
I really needed it. I could not run sopcast player in IE on Vista. This really helps a lot..
Anand said
I am able to connect to Internet from my Virtual PC
BUT I am unable to connect to the Router and other Network PCs from the Virtucal Machine although able to connect to the PC on which virtual machines are running.
Earlier I was able to connect to everything; I don’t know how this happened. and since this has happened, my port forwarding from Router to my virtual machine is not working. Can anyone help me?
J. Allen Q. Santos said
Wow!
Thank you very much for this article! It is very helpful!
Allen
arun said
yep worked great here thanks again first article i looked at
sohail said
help me iv follwoed everything up to step 5 after that when i got to settings of my virtal machine and click on networks theres only two adaptors showing local and a shared netwroking(nat)
so please help and i still cannot connect ot the interentthrouhg my virtaul machine!!!
email me on sohail_vsm@hotmail.co.uk to tell me how to do it and if it works i will post the solution on here to help any other people hwo are having the same problem.
Gérald said
Thanks a lot, great explanations! You saved me a lot of hours and headaches!
(merci beaucoup!)
Cheers!
G
Ralph said
hi i have something want to learn from you about virtual machine how can i connect my pc to my virtual machine without lan connection. i mean pc to pc virtual. hope you can help me.thank you..
Mandy said
This was a great thing for me to find. Thank you.. it was sooooooooooo helpful
Totoy Bato said
ang lupet pre..
good article!!
Totoy Bato said
ang lupet pre..
good article!!
How come I cant find Microsoft Virtual PC folder in my system? any ideas?
Sumit Jha said
Thanks, I Have been fac’g the issue since Nov 2007. Then i had to install Window 2003 server. Y’day i have seen your solution & thought of implementing it. And It Worked for me.
Donny B said
Thank you so much, I really liked this Tutorial or whatever. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to connect to the internet on VPC.
Gustavo P said
Really thanks, i was looking for solutions to this problem and you solve so quickly. Regards from Argentina.
AG said
I can’t connect my Host to VPC, it show the PC name but can’t log in. I can connect to Internet. Using XP Pro.
Any IDea ?
AG
MJ Hufford said
You rock…thanks for saving the day!
Matt said
That worked a treat – thanks CJ!
steve said
Hi i have managed to do all of the screenshots shown upto part 5. But when i go to my VPC to set my network adapter to the adapter that i just installed the Virtual Machine Network Service
is not shown. Can anyone help me please???
Steve
Narendra Pal Singh said
Hi,
thanks alot!!! i was trying hard to get this done…………ur blog was very much helpful
CGM said
Bravo!
Govil said
Thanks a ton.
Chris said
thanks man now i can use the net on opensuse 11.0 on my ms virtual pc 2007
Ramesh said
thanks dear, finally done but very slow…………….
TiGrE said
TNX VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nathan said
DUDE! Thanks for this article. I would have never figured it out!
Henri said
I never give up when there’s some problem with anything according to coding, computers etc. and thats why you just saved me a couple of years working hard at nights solving this same situation. 2 minutes and there you go! Thanks so much !
Bill said
I had a minor twist – driver loaded on local & wirless internet card but only worked with VPC when wireless activated. Either way THANKS VERY MUCH -pointed me in the correct direction.
valence said
i got a problem, i followed all the steps and no connection still.
my network adapter in the VPC is different from the network adapter that i install. donnu what to do.. pls help..
Han Evers said
Thanks!
It worked for me after I realized I had to set my proxy that my company uses on the host. Without setting the proxy on the virtual machine I still couldn’t connect to the internet, whereas I could ping to various websites. That gave me the clue!
Cheers, Han
Prashant Jaiswal said
WOW!! thank you soo much for your help
And thank god that my problem got solved in less than 10 mins after ur help 
NTA said
i forgot how to get to the first screenshot T_T
aga said
It works!
This is great!!!
Spend hours looking at Microsoft’s info but to no avail. They don’t even come lose as for to-the-point information.
123 said
THANK YOU
Prasun said
Wow. A big Thank You.
Rakesh said
coooool dude…thanx for d article…
it really saved lot of my time…n d way u hv mentioned it is even gr8…
Lorna said
Please where do I go to find step one?
Lorna said
Continued. I have tried a lot of places but I don’t know where to access the “Wireless Network Connection Properties ” and I don’t know if I should be looking for it on the host or the guest. Can you help?
Sebina said
Hi Lorna,
Not sure if you found the answer for your question.
From the Start Menu go to Settings -> Network Connections and you will find the different network adapters.
But I haven’t got mine to work after following the entire steps though
Sebina said
Thanks for the steps. Finally I got to connect to the internet after following Han Evers’ tip.
Irene said
I have VPC 2007 with XP/professional installed on a VISTA 64 BIT. I see the VPC network, but I am still unable to connect to the internet. HELP!
gaurav said
dude…u rock……
u solvd a big prblm of mine………..
***** five out of five stars to u……
THNX A TON.