VMware error with networking

If you are facing networking issues when opening or running a vmware Virtual Machine it could be due to Network Adapter settings.

The Virtual Machine opens up fine however there is no network connectivity between this VM (the guest OS) and Host machine. The networking for the Host machine is fine and it can connect to the local LAN or internet. Now if this is the case, then one needs to investigate the guest Virtual Machine's Network Adapter.

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Above figure shows the current Network Adapter settings for guest VM. This shows that the guest VM is connected to the Host machine via Bridged Network Adapter. What this means is that the guest Virtual Machine is now accessing the Local network directly - of course it can only do that by sharing the Host machine's network adapter. Hence, it can obtain its own independent IP address from the Local network if the Local network has DHCP enabled. So the guest VM will appear as another machine on the subnet as shown in below figure.
The Host machine is connected to the Local Area Network via its own network adapter. In Bridged mode, the Guest Machine shares the Host's network adapter and hence is able to independently connect to the LAN. 

However, even though if your settings are similar to the above figure, the guest VM may be unable to communicate with the Local network or even the Host machine. You may try to restart the guest VM if that helps, if not then you may have to check your VMnet0 settings. This can be checked via the Virtual Network Editor provided by VMware. It shows up as below- I had to reset to "Restore Defaults" and now it shows up as below. It shows up as Name - VMnet0, Type - Bridged, External Connection - name of the LAN card/controller (or Wifi controller).

Below shows the Bridged mode selection and its VMnet information. The VMnet0 is for Bridged type of network connection, whereas VMnet1 is for Host-only connection where the guest machine can only communicate or network with the Host machine, and VMnet8 is for NAT where the guest machine shares the Host machine's IP address. In NAT mode all connections coming or originating from the guest machine will have the same IP address of the Host machine. Using Bridged mode is best to use when your guest machine needs to be connected to external network like Internet and needs to have its own IP address.

Above figure shows the Virtual Network Editor. You can access it by opening Edit >> Virtual Network Editor. Also if you have VMware workstation installed then the "Virtual Network Editor" shortcut is available via Windows >> Start >> Programs, as shown in figure below.

The "Virtual Network Editor" can be directly accessed via above Start >> Programs as well. Either way as you launch this Network Editor, check your settings for VMnet0 and VMnet8. (The above figure is from a gues VM that is using Bridged network settings). Note that "Virtual Network Editor" can only be accessed by Administrator. Of course VMnet0 should always be available.

After Restore to Defaults (as shown above) was done, and guest VM was restarted, it was able to communicate with the local network. Also in order to access "Virtual Network Editor", one has to shutdown the guest VM.

Note: If you are frequently importing Virtual Machines, you may find the imported VM may again not be able to communicate with the local network or the Host machine. In this case, then consider again using the option of "Restore Default" via Virtual Network Editor.