Windows 10: Win10 Accesses the Internet With Hyper-V's Virtual Switch

After adding Hyper-V to Windows 10 Pro, Windows now accesses the internet with the virtual switch I created for Hyper-V instead of my Ethernet connection. Why isn't Windows 10 using my Ethernet connection?

:)

 

Hyper V: How to install guest operating OS?

Internet? Examples:

How to Create and Run Virtual Machines With Hyper-V

Create a virtual switch for Hyper-V virtual machines

 

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Hi Robert,

no, it's not. According to the Hyper-V Manager, I've only got two Virtual Switches; Microsoft Emulator NAT Switch and Windows Phone Emulator Internal Switch, both are marked as internal. My internet access, via the Ethernet port, is provided by a Realtek
PCIe GBE Family Controller. I've also got two other Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet adapters showing up among my Network Connections but they are both marked as disabled.

Kind regards,

 

Your host machine is still using the Ethernet connection, it's just used through an external virtual switch. That's how it should be.

To allow communications between virtual machines and host, between different virtual machines, and to let both host and virtual machines access Internet, host machine needs to use the same external switch than virtual machines.

Let it be as it is, there's no issue here things being as they should be.

 

Thanks very much for your help. Please bear with me as I become better acquainted with Hyper-V:

I expected to see the virtual switch being used for internet access by the virtual machine when I am actually running the virtual machine. I was not expecting to see the virtual switch being used for internet access by my computer when I am not running a virtual machine. In that case I was expecting to see my computer using my 'regular' Ethernet connection, just as it did before I added Hyper-V.

It seems there's something basic about Hyper-V that I don't understand (yet.) Would you please explain?

 

It's really pretty simple. Imagine if you had 3 physical computers, and one cable modem (with a single port on it). Now, in order for these three computers to talk to each other, and all talk to the internet, you would need a switch that sits between the modem and the computers. Correct?

That's basically what is happening here. Only one computer (either virtual or physical) can use the built-in Ethernet connection, so when you install Hyper-V it creates a "virtual switch" that sits between the host computer, as well as all the virtual computers so they can all talk to each other, as well as the internet. Just like in the previous scenario.

If the host was talking directly to the Ethernet, then the guests would not be able to use it.

 

Aha! Now I get it. *Party

 

Good description. I learnt something!

I assume VMware etc do something similar but less obvious?

 

I haven't used VMWare in ages, but I think VMWare installs some kind of middleware driver in the network stack to do this.

 

Hi there

Vmware creates a "Virtual" adapter which as you say essentially does the same thing. These are vmnet0-vmnetn depending on how you connect to the physical NIC. Vmware routes the traffic via the vmnet interface to the physical nic on the host and hence to router and internet / LAN.

I'm not sure how this works or can be set up if you have 2 or more physical nics on the machine

Here's 4 VM's running on a Linux Host -- 3X W10 and 1 X W7 - network map as seen from the W7 machine. Host is machine BROWNBEAR running Linux CENTOs 7.

I've had up to 8 running concurrently -- response drops off a bit then and if you are only using 1 physical nic you want at least a 1 - 10Gib/s one. I've actually 2 physical NIC's on the Host but not sure how to use the second one in a VMWARE network I know it's easy with HYPER-V though - but then I can't have LINUX as the host.





Cheers
jimbo

 

Just to add to Mystere's excellent post, using a Hyper-V external switch virtual machines get a bridged connection. If you prefer NAT (Network Address Translation) instead, you don't have to create an external virtual switch. About bridged vs. NAT: NAT vs. bridged network: A simple diagram - TechGenix

To use NAT in Hyper-V, first create an Internal switch in Virtual Switch Manager then share your host Ethernet or WLAN connection with your internal switch:




In VM settings set virtual machines to use the internal switch. They will now get private IP addresses 192.168.137.XXX, internal switch on host acting as DHCP server with IP 192.168.137.1.

Using NAT only with virtual machines makes external virtual switch unnecessary but as it makes networking between host and virtual machines quite a challenge if not impossible, the bridged mode with an external switch is the recommended way.

Quote from an old tutorial at our sister site EightForums.com:

(From EightForums.com tutorial Hyper-V Virtual Switch Manager)