Symptoms

I have a device which allows connection to the Internet, but it only has drivers for Windows. How can I share Internet connection from Windows Virtual Machine to Mac OS?

Resolution

Below are described basic steps to configure your Mac to share Network Connection from Windows. Please note that it is not implemented by design in Parallels Desktop and settings may vary on some specific configuration.

Due to this, Parallels Technical support does not provide any assistance on this implementation and you can use it and modify as much as you like to fit your needs or your configuration. Any related questions can be asked on Parallels Forum in the corresponding thread.

Instructions:

1. Connect the modem to USB port on Mac OS X computer
2. Start Parallels Desktop (do not launch the virtual machine yet) and open Parallels Desktop menu on the menubar -> Preferences -> Network: -> Host Only tab:

3. Fill both "Start address" and "End address" with the numbers below:

       Start address [192.168.0.128]
       End address [192.168.0.254]
   

   It should look like this:

   

4. Make Parallels Network Adapter visible in Mac OS X Network Preferences by following the steps in this knowledge base article:

   http://kb.parallels.com/en/116528

5. Go to Mac OS X System Preferences -> Network, choose 'Parallels Host-Only' adapter and change the settings to be:

       Router: 192.168.0.1
   

   

   Click Advanced... > choose DNS > then click "+" symbol and add the address below, then OK to apply:

       DNS server: 192.168.0.1
   

   

6. Start the virtual machine, go to Parallels Desktop dropdown menu -> Devices -> Network 1 -> change network connection type to Host-Only Network;

   

7. Connect your USB modem to virtual machine. For this purpose click on Parallels Desktop top menu -> Devices -> External Devices and check the necessary modem.

   If there are no drivers installed yet for this USB modem device, please install them first. Refer to the manual of the device for additional information.

8. When modem installation completes, a new Network connection should appear under Start -> Control Panel -> Network and Sharing Center/Network Connections applet.

   Click (or right-click) the correspondent USB device network connection and choose Properties -> Sharing.

   Enable “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection” option. In the “Home networking connection” drop-down list, select the network adapter which was previously set to Host-only.

   

9. Then get back to

   • Control Panel -> Network and Sharing Center/Network Connections -> Change adapter settings

   

   • Right-click on the network connection created for Host-only in Windows -> Properties

   

   • Internet Protocol version 4 (TCP/IPv4) -> Properties

   

   • In General Tab -> choose “Use the following IP address” and change the IP to be:

     192.168.0.1