VMWare Player network adapter settings - which one?

G'day,

I've been using VMWare Player to run a Linux virtual machine (Mint 12 to be precise, but I occasionally run Ubuntu and Debian).

At the moment, I am using the BRIDGED network adapter settings as shown in the image below. I noticed that there is also a NAT and HOST-ONLY setting.

Can someone explain the difference between the 3 settings? Is there an obvious benefit to using one over another - security perhaps?

Regards,
Golden

Check this: Common Networking Configurations

If you just need to access the internet chose NAT.

Thanks guys : both NAT and BRIDGED seem to behave the same way for me. Any idea why you would want ti use one over the other?

Bridged allows you to network shares on the host as well as internet though I have to admit that I have only got it to work with a windows guest.

Thanks Kado. By "shares on the host" do you mean the ability access a drive and/or folder on the host (in my case the host is Windows 7)?

I seem to be able to mount any of my hosts drives, and access them from within the virtual machine, using either NAT or BRIDGED.

Regards,
Golden

I have to say that I have never got it to share anything other the the vbox shared folders with NAT. I am talking about accessing the Windows network.

Ahh, I get you, thanks for persisting Kado. I cannot see any other PC on the Windows network, or vice versa, from within the virtual machine - so thats what the difference in bridged and NAT is, correct?

Regards,
Golden

yes that's correct Golden

Thanks Kado - I'll stick with NAT