Last week a customer had the problem that a virtual machine uses a NAT Network connection but the NIC Adapter in the virtual machine is in disconnected state.

C:\Users\Administrator>ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration

Ethernet adapter LAN-Connection:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : localdomain

This could occur if the VMWare NAT service is stopped. Check the VMware NAT Service:

[C:\]sc query "VMware NAT Service"

SERVICE_NAME: VMware NAT Service
        TYPE               : 10  WIN32_OWN_PROCESS
        STATE              : 1  STOPPED
        WIN32_EXIT_CODE    : 0  (0x0)
        SERVICE_EXIT_CODE  : 0  (0x0)
        CHECKPOINT         : 0x0
        WAIT_HINT          : 0x0

if the service is in stopped state, start it

[H:\]sc start "VMware NAT Service"

SERVICE_NAME: VMware NAT Service
        TYPE               : 10  WIN32_OWN_PROCESS
        STATE              : 2  START_PENDING
                                (STOPPABLE, NOT_PAUSABLE, IGNORES_SHUTDOWN)
        WIN32_EXIT_CODE    : 0  (0x0)
        SERVICE_EXIT_CODE  : 0  (0x0)
        CHECKPOINT         : 0x0
        WAIT_HINT          : 0x0
        PID                : 6824
        FLAGS              :

and check the service again

[C:\]sc query "VMware NAT Service"

SERVICE_NAME: VMware NAT Service
        TYPE               : 10  WIN32_OWN_PROCESS
        STATE              : 4  RUNNING
                                (STOPPABLE, NOT_PAUSABLE, IGNORES_SHUTDOWN)
        WIN32_EXIT_CODE    : 0  (0x0)
        SERVICE_EXIT_CODE  : 0  (0x0)
        CHECKPOINT         : 0x0
        WAIT_HINT          : 0x0

and if the service is up check the media state of the vm. Now, the link should be up

C:\Users\Administrator>ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration
Ethernet adapter LAN-Connection:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : localdomain
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::6d03:9bb7:4c22:c66%13
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.193.128
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.193.2

Michael