Router Thinks VMware Workstaion Virtual Machine Is Host Based on MAC Address?

[HarryMuscle]

On the off chance anyone here uses VMware Workstation virtual machines ... is it normal for the router to think that traffic from a virtual machine is coming from the host? In the list of Clients the router is correctly able to identify the MAC address of the virtual machine, however, looking at the /proc/net/arp table it shows the host's MAC address associated with the virtual machine's IP address. Is this normal? This seems to affect things like Traffic Analyzer and DNSFilter, and probably a bunch of other stuff that relies on MAC addresses.

Thanks,
Harry

 

[ColinTaylor]

Yes I see the problem. A related issue was discussed here.

It's specific to wireless clients. The client list is a combination of the arp table and the DHCP leases. The VM cannot spoof the MAC address over a wireless connection so it goes via the real MAC address. It can however spoof the MAC address when talking to the DHCP server which is why you see that MAC in the client list.

 

[HarryMuscle]

Yes I see the problem. A related issue was discussed here.

It's specific to wireless clients. The client list is a combination of the arp table and the DHCP leases. The VM cannot spoof the MAC address over a wireless connection so it goes via the real MAC address. It can however spoof the MAC address when talking to the DHCP server which is why you see that MAC in the client list.

So if I connect the host over ethernet the router should start recognizing the virtual machine traffic as actually coming from the virtual machine?

 

[ColinTaylor]

So if I connect the host over ethernet the router should start recognizing the virtual machine traffic as actually coming from the virtual machine?

Yes.