To configure a PortForwarding on Windows 10 to a VM hosted on VMware Player it is necessary to proceed as follows:

• Configure a static IP address (not essential but recommended) use the DHCP reservation function present in the virtualization application
• Configure port forwarding.

Configure DHCP Reservation

• Retrieve the MAC Address assigned to the virtual machine to which you want a static IP
• Modify (with Notepad running in Administrator mode) the vmnetdhcp.conf file present in C:\ProgramData\VMware by inserting the following lines:

Host <Name of virtual network> {

hardware ethernet <Mac Address in this format xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx;

fixed-address <ip address>*;

}

Example:

#Static IP WIN11 –> Comment to identify the VM

VMnet8 host {
Hardware Ethernet 00: 0C: 29: 41: E8: 0C;
fixed address 192.168.233.10;
}

Where in our case the VMnet8 is the one assigned by default to the “NAT” configuration of the VM network card

• Restart the VMNETDHCP service
  net stop vmnetdhcp
  net start vmnetdhcp

Port Forwarding Configuration

• Modify (with Notepad running in Administrator mode) the vmnetnat.conf file present in C:\ProgramData\VMware by inserting the following lines:
  <tcpPortSource> = <IPaddress VM>:<tcpPortDestination>

Example:
8889 = 192.168.233.10:3389

In this case, we follow an RDP session to the OS system hosting my VM using: 8889 I will access through RDS to my VM with IP 192.168.233.10

*To check the IP range to always use the vmnetdhcp.conf file and identify the correct network segment; In the case of my example the segment is 8 (VMnet8)

# Virtual ethernet segment 8

# Added at 11/10/21 23:49:40

subnet 192.168.233.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {

range 192.168.233.128 192.168.233.254;            # default allows up to 125 VM’s

option broadcast-address 192.168.233.255;

option domain-name-servers 192.168.233.2;

option domain-name “localdomain”;

option netbios-name-servers 192.168.233.2;

option routers 192.168.233.2;

default-lease-time 1800;

max-lease-time 7200;

}