Networking in a Virtual Machine

Parallels Desktop allows you to use three types of networking in your virtual machines:

• Shared Networking . This type of networking allows the virtual machine to use the current network connections of your physical computer.
• Bridged Ethernet . This type of networking allows the virtual machine to use one of the physical computer's network adapters, which makes it appear as a separate computer on the network the physical computer belongs to.
• Host-only networking . This type of networking allows the virtual machine to access only the physical computer and other virtual machines residing on it.

By default, the virtual machine uses Shared Networking, because configuring it requires minimal effort from the users. The Bridged Ethernet networking mode is more complex, and you may need to contact your system administrator to set it up properly.

Detailed information on these types of networking and the way to configure them is provided in the following subsections.