I hope this is the right forum. I'll try to keep this as brief as possible. Please keep in mind that I basically know enough about vmware to be dangerous, but am by no means an expert.
I was asked by a client to set up a somewhat "failover backup". They are a small office with only one 2003 SBS. I found THIS SITE and suggested that we do that. Overall, the method worked pretty well.
However, upon booting up the VM (network adapters disconnected of course), I noticed that the three connections on the original box are named LAN, WAN, and BACKUP...all with static addresses. The three connections in the VM are called Local Area Connection, Local Area Connection 2, and Local Area Connection 3...all with default DHCP settings. When I booted down the original SBS and connected the VM, I could not connect to the network at all. When I went into the connections, renamed them, and assigned the appropriate IP settings, I got a message that a connection already exists with those settings, but is "hidden".
I discussed this with a colleague who had seen this before and told me to check HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\currentcontrolset\control\network\(the first key under that), and to remove the incorrect connections. I did this, rebooted, and now 2003 SBS is "stuck" on "preparing network connections".
I'm going to do a new p2v tonight and start over tomorrow, but I thought someone else might have more info before I start again in the morning.
Any suggestions?