Fix Virtual PC 2007 Shared Networking (NAT) Internet Not Working in Windows Server 2003, 2008 and Vista Guest OS
After installing Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista into Microsoft Virtual PC’s virtual machine (VM) (update to Virtual PC 2007 SP1) as guest operating system, and set the Networking Settings for the VM to use Shared Network (NAT) as the network adapter, the Internet appears to be not working where web browser (Internet Explorer, IE and Firefox) cannot connect, find, locate or browse to website.
However, when IP address is used, access to the external server on Internet may work. For example, ping, trace route, ftp, sftp, telnet and SSH using IP address instead of domain name or host name, user can successfully connecting to the remote server.
NAT (Network Address Translation) is an easy shared networking technique that masquerading or transceiving network traffic through a router that involves re-writing the source and/or destination IP addresses and the TCP/UDP port numbers of IP packets as they pass through. In the case of Virtual PC, it uses a virtual NAT router which built on host computer’s default active network connection to allow guest operating system to access Internet via the host’s Internet connection.
Shared Networking or NAT allows computers or hosts on a private network to access the Internet using a single IP address, without exposing the PCs (or virtual machines) to the external network, significantly reduce security risk. NAT is also useful to allow virtually unlimited number of IP addresses to connect to Internet, thus administrator is not limited by the amount of IANA assigned-IP address allocated space. Beside, Shared Network (NAT) allows user to easily plug and play or move the virtual machine or physical machine to different network configurations such as different Wi-Fi wireless access point, home or office network.
Most computers, including Virtual PC 2007 virtual machines can easily access Internet using Shared Networking, as easy as right after operating system is installed, which enable DHCP by default. So, the problem with Windows Server 2003, Server 2008 and Vista as guest OS cannot access Internet is by design. The Internet not working issue is caused by when the guest operating system queries for DNS Server from Shared Network (NAT) virtual router, the guest OS is configured to use the same DNS servers which are used by the physical host computer.
This is not the case with a Windows Server 2003 guest though. The problem is that Shared Networking configures the guest operating system to use the same DNS servers as are used by the physical computer. However, when actual DNS query resolving packets are been returned, it’s actually returned from the IP address of “192.168.131.254″, which is the virtual gateway used by Shared Networking (NAT).
Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista will reject any DNS resolution packets that are returned from a different source from than the DNS Server (both has different IP address) that it had requested the information from. As thus, all name resolution of domain name and URL fails, indirectly leads to the guest operating system appears to be cannot connect to Internet. Windows XP and older operating system is not affected by this behavior.
To fix the Shared Network (NAT) Internet no connection or not working issue, the resolution is to manually assign the IP address for the DNS Server for the guest operating system to 192.168.131.254, the virtual gateway IP address used by Virtual PC. To make the change (in guest operating system), open Network Connections folder (in Windows Vista, access via Network and Sharing Center), and right click Local Area Connection network icon to select its Properties. Then double click on Internet Protocl (TCP/IP) under General tab or Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) under Networking (for Windows Vista) tab.

Click to select the radio button of Use the following DNS server addresses, and then type in 192.168.131.254 into the IP address box for Preferred DNS Server. Click OK twice to exit, and voila, the Shared Network (NAT) now works as it should with Internet access.
If you’re encountering this problem in Windows XP guest OS, it’s probably caused by invalid DNS server assigned by Virtual PC network adapter too.
Related Articles
- Windows Server 2008 or Vista Activation Fails When Configure Third Party Firewall to Use HTTPS Authentication to Access Internet
- How to Enable PAE in x86 32-bit Windows Server 2003 and 2000 to Use Large 4GB or More RAM Memory
- How to Bridge Virtual PC 2007 to Use Host Computer Wireless Network Adapter
- Volume Activation 2.0 Technical Guidance Updated for Windows Server 2008 and Vista SP1
- Microsoft Virtual PC (VPC) 2007 SP1 Free Download
- ImageX 6001.18000 (x86 and x64 for Windows Server 2008 and Vista SP1) Standalone Download
- Compiled List of Windows Server 2008 and Vista SP1 MSDN/TechNet DVD ISO Images Released by Microsoft
- CoreConfigurator (Core Configurator) GUI Configuration Tool for Windows Server 2008 Server Core Free Download
- Workaround to Run VMWare Server on Windows Vista
- Windows Server 2008 Official Direct Download Links










































November 15th, 2009 05:19
Hi – thanks a lot – this tip saved many time. I tried so many things – on vista64(host) with vista32 guest system no internet was available. After i filled the dns there is internet connection (NAT). Thats funny because virtual pc 2007 is running fine on my other PC (vista32 host and xp or vista32 guest – i never had to do something to have internet connection in VPC)…Strange that !!!
November 13th, 2009 04:44
Thanx a lot, man! You save my butt!!
November 10th, 2009 20:16
Thanks worked a treat!
November 4th, 2009 13:55
“Use the following DNS server addresses, and then type in 192.168.131.254 into the IP address box for Preferred DNS Server.”
Your one line solved my 2 days old problem. Simply great post… keep up the good work…
September 30th, 2009 02:07
[...] 以下是參考至【Fix Virtual PC 2007 Shared Networking (NAT) Internet Not Working …】 [...]
July 29th, 2009 08:56
Your awesome awesomeness is exemplified by this awesome article. It’s amazing how fixing the little things makes such a big difference!
July 29th, 2009 07:19
Thanks! It seems other desktop virtualization apps suffer from the same problem when using W2K3 Server as a guest. Either VMware or VirtualBox, or both.
July 18th, 2009 06:20
[...] – If you are a developer, download Silverlight 3 Tools for Visual Studio and install. If you run your environment in a Virtual PC (like most of the SharePoint developers do) you will encounter problems when you have no internet connection from within your Virtual PC. Until the beta version of Silverlight 3 you could use the trick to copy the content of the temporary folder while the exe was aching to install, and then install everything separately, but this time you will not find the Silverlight.3.x_Developer.exe file to enable Silverlight debugging in Visual Studio so you DO need an internet connection this time. (To enable internet access from within your VPC, I can recommend this post). [...]
June 19th, 2009 21:46
This is great. Thanks a lot.
June 5th, 2009 19:06
Thanks a lot for the article. The network is working for me now. I was pulling my hair since yesterday to rectify this problem.
May 14th, 2009 20:23
Thanks a lot .. it worked for me ..
May 12th, 2009 14:19
Perfect solution to my puzzling no-inet issue with Windows 7 RC1
I now have a working Win7 RC using VPC on Vista. Very happy!
Thank you so much
May 7th, 2009 21:17
Thanks a lot for your article. I am running Wampp on my working pc and use virtual pc 2007 for testing ie6/ie7 display in web design.
Was wondering why NAT was working with xp but not with Windows 7 until I found this. You really made my day!
April 29th, 2009 03:02
Agree as Windows 7 RC (build 7100)solution, thank you for this post
April 12th, 2009 11:48
Thanks for the info, you made my day…
April 2nd, 2009 21:20
Thanks a lot, I used this tip to configure my network setting on a virtual windows 7, works great!!
=)