14.4.2024

My networking in a Windows 11 VM under VM Ware Fusion stopped working. Could not figure out why so I tried another VM I had - a Debian system. And it worked.

Debian

So I checked the network configuration:

user@debian:~$ cat /etc/resolv.conf
# Generated by NetworkManager
search localdomain
nameserver 192.168.116.2

user@debian:~$ ping google.com
PING google.com.localdomain (142.250.192.142) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 142.250.192.142: icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=379 ms
64 bytes from 142.250.192.142: icmp_seq=2 ttl=128 time=378 ms
64 bytes from 142.250.192.142: icmp_seq=3 ttl=128 time=378 ms
^C
--- google.com.localdomain ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 3 received, 25% packet loss, time 9952ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 377.561/378.004/378.809/0.570 ms

Checked the docs for the search parameter man resolv.conf

...
       search Search list for host-name lookup.
              By default, the search list contains one entry, the local domain
              name.   It  is  determined  from  the local hostname returned by
              gethostname(2); the local domain name is taken to be  everything
              after  the first '.'.  Finally, if the hostname does not contain
              a '.', the root domain is assumed as the local domain name.
...

Windows

Flush the DNS cache

PS C:\Users\vit> ipconfig /flushdns

Windows IP Configuration

Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.

Try pinging google.com

PS C:\Users\vit> ping google.com
Ping request could not find host google.com. Please check the name and try again.

Do a DNS lookup on google.com

PS C:\Users\vit> nslookup google.com
Server:  UnKnown
Address:  192.168.116.2

Name:    google.com.localdomain
Addresses:  142.251.12.102
          142.251.12.102

Ping the IP address

PS C:\Users\vit> ping 142.251.12.102

Pinging 142.251.12.102 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 142.251.12.102: bytes=32 time=339ms TTL=128
Reply from 142.251.12.102: bytes=32 time=439ms TTL=128
Reply from 142.251.12.102: bytes=32 time=339ms TTL=128
Reply from 142.251.12.102: bytes=32 time=393ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 142.251.12.102:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 339ms, Maximum = 439ms, Average = 377ms

Now check out the network configuration

PS C:\Users\vit> ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration


Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : localdomain
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::66f7:4333:e9bb:252%13
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.116.132
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.116.2

The interesting thing is the “Connection-specific DNS Suffix”. It essentially a windows equivalent of the search option in /etc/resolv.conf. It says that when I do a DNS query a .localdomain should be appended. However, it did not work.

On the other hand

PS C:\Users\vit> ping google.com.localdomain

Pinging google.com.localdomain [142.251.12.100] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 142.251.12.100: bytes=32 time=320ms TTL=128
Reply from 142.251.12.100: bytes=32 time=320ms TTL=128
Reply from 142.251.12.100: bytes=32 time=318ms TTL=128
Reply from 142.251.12.100: bytes=32 time=321ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 142.251.12.100:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 318ms, Maximum = 321ms, Average = 319ms

I checked with an AI chatbot and it suggested to Set DNS Suffix:

Open Control Panel.
Go to Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center.
Click on Change adapter settings.
Right-click on your active network connection and select Properties.
Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click on Properties.
Click on the Advanced button.
In the DNS tab, look for the DNS suffix for this connection field. You can add localhost here if it’s not already present.
Click OK to save your changes.

That did not help either and above all the suffix was properly set as shown by the ipconfig output.

Symantec WSS Agent

Eventually I found out that when I disable the Symantec WSS Agent on my host macOS, the windows networking starts working.

I guess it is related to certificate issues. I had a similar problem when setting up podman on my macOS. However this time, adding the symantec custom root CA did not help.