Set up a Direct Network between Host and Guest VMWare

Question

I have a Soft PLC running inside a VMWare environment (Guest - Windows 8). I want to connect to it from the Host (Windows 10) using the internal connections without having to set up a physical network switch. My understanding of the documentation states that this should be achieved by Host only networking https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Workstation-Player-for-Windows/15.0/com.vmware.player.win.using.doc/GUID-93BDF7F1-D2E4-42CE-80EA-4E305337D2FC.html

And I've my PC Set up as:

The Network card in the Guest is set up as 192.168.0.244 On the Host, the network VMNet1 (Should be the DHCP Server) is Dynamic (DHCP) and resolved to 192.168.67.1 and VMNet8 (Should be the connection to the Guest) is also DHCP and has resolved to 192.169.73.1 All subnet masks are at 255.255.255.0 (DHCP defined?)

Even if I assign VMNet8 or VMNet1 to physical IP at 192.169.0.1 or 192.169.0.244 or 192.169.0.1 or even 192.168.0.12, I cannot ping the network card inside the host.

Am I missing something here with my setup? What am i doing wrong or has anyone got a step by step process for setting up a direct network connection between the Guest and host for testing communications without an external switch?

(I've disabled teh network connections between each setting change)

Answer 1

Found the issue. The VM should have been set to NAT The Network address of the adapter Inside the Guest set to the IP address I'm looking for On my Host - VMNet 1 left alone as this is the DHCP Server And set the VMNet 8 (Bridged connection between Guest and Host) to an IP address within a range of the subnet And after disabling and re-enabling the connections, I can ping the PLC (192.168.0.1) running in simulation on the Guest from outside in the Host. (Allows me to test node-red on the host connecting via OPC to PLCSim Advanced running on the Guest).