FC5 VMware 5.5.2 problems

[Dean S. Messing]

wwp wrote:
: Dean Messing wrote:
: > I have a problem with Shared Folders.
: > I'm running the latest version of VMware.
: > The host is an up-to-date FC5 and the guest is XP Pro (Service pack 2).
: > XP is on a NAT network as defined by VMware.
: > 
: > There is clearly something amiss with this virtual switch, or whatever
: > it's called (vmnet8) that is used for the NAT network and which
: > connects the host to the guest.  (Note: I'm a network ignoramus so go
: > easy if I'm not using the right terminology here!)
: > 
: > I've defined a Shared Folder under VMware over to my Windows stuff on
: > Linux.  Binking into any directory in the Shared Folder takes seconds
: > each time.  It is extremely slow. Also bringing up even a trivial .doc file
: > takes 10 seconds or more.
: > 
: > I can see some traffic on the vmnet8 meter on gkrellm
: > but the rate numbers are in the low low single digits (like 1 and 2).
: > 
: > Any clues on how to diagnose and fix?
: 
: Didn't get such behaviour here w/ the same config. Did you restart the vmware
: winXP after upgrading to VMWare 5.5.2? Also try to keep only one of the three
: (possible: bridged, NAT, host-only) network cards to see if one works
: normally.

It was a fresh install of everything: VMware, XP, and Office.

Some other facts that are possibly related:

"ifconfig" shows both vmnet1 and vmnet8, though gkrellm shows no
traffic on vmnet1. Not sure why vmnet1 was even created.

In the vmware "summary", Ethernet 1 is shown as "NAT".

My understanding of "NAT" is that everything going to and from the
guest (XP) must go across vmnet8 to the virtual address translator
and thence out the eth0 port of Linux.  Yet if, w/in Internet Explorer
inside XP, I download a large file from the internet, I see no traffic
on vmnet8, just on eth0 (according to gkrellm).

The same is true if transfer a big file from our lab's Network Neighbourhood
to XP.   Yet when I first access said file, there is a several second delay
and a one or two kilobytes shows up for vmnet8.

I would think that anything going to or from XP should show up
on vmnet8 on its way to the NAT or to the host.

Dean