Cannot connect to network in Windows virtual machine using Bridged network type

Symptoms

• I am unable to connect to Internet in Windows virtual machine after changing network type to Bridged for Windows virtual machine.

• I get an exclamation mark on the icon of network connection in Windows taskbar tray.

• When I execute 'ipconfig /renew' (without quotes) in Windows virtual machine's Command Prompt, after several minutes of waiting I get an error message:

"an error occurred while renewing interface Ethernet : unable to contact your DHCP server. request has timed out"

• If I try to troubleshoot issues with network connection I get an error "Your connection doesn't have a valid IP configuration"

Cause

While using a wireless connection on your Mac and a Bridged network in the virtual machine, make sure that your Wi-Fi router (e.g. Airport Extreme, Time capsule, etc.) is not configured to provide Wi-Fi access by a MAC address. Otherwise you have to setup IP for Windows virtual machine manually, or setup DHCP server in the network.

Resolution

Change Wi-Fi connection to Ethernet (wired) on your Mac. Reboot Windows virtual machine and check network connectivity.

NOTE: You may also try to test network connectivity under different Wi-Fi networks. If the virtual machine can’t connect to the Internet in some particular network while in Wi-Fi Bridged mode, but works in general and can connect to other Wi-Fi networks, it is a network issue, not the virtual machine one. In this case contact the system administrator serving this network.