I have a very strange problem with VMWare Server 2 running on Windows Server 2008.
I have a VM running linux in the NAT network. From this VM, I am able to make outbound UDP connections (eg. a DNS query to an external nameserver works just fine). I am also able to set up port forwarding (both TCP as UDP) to the VM, for instance I can connect over SSH to my VM through the hosts' IP address. The only thing I can't do, is make an outbound TCP connection from the VM to the internet.
I have done some extensive testing on the host using Wireshark.
I can see the SYN packet from the VM go over the vmnet8 adapter. This SYN is then sent over my phisical network adapter. I also receive the ACK,SYN back from the external host over the physical network adapter. I do NOT see the ACK,SYN go back over the vmnet8 to the VM.
I have tried disabling the firewall on both the host as the VM, but the problem is exactly the same. This makes me believe that the problem is somewhere to be looked for in the VMWare NAT service. I have already tried the repair option of the VMWare installer, but even after repairing, the problem is still there. I've also tried putting the NAT on a different VMNet interface and assign new subnets, but that did not work either.
I've created another VM, and it is showing exactly the same issue.
Does anyone have an idea of what might be wrong?