bridge host network access problem

Question

Hello everybody!

I have two PCs. I connected them by a cross ethernet cable. I want to opt PC1 as my host, which I clarify more clearly as follows:
The PC1 has Windows Server 2019 (I tested this case study by Windows 10 as well) and also has another virtual VMWare interface which is local network for PC1 and several virtual machines on PC1. This virtual interface is of type bridge. What I need to do is giving network access from PC2 to PC1 and the virtual machines and vice versa. i.e. I need PC1 to act as a virtual router. I tried to combine these two interfaces by bridging them in "Network Connections", the result was that PC2 has access to the virtual machines and vice versa and the virtual machines and PC2 also have access to PC1 but the problem is that the host itself cannot ping anyone despite the fact that I need everybody to be able to ping each other. I also did the following configurations for the interfaces:

on bridged interface (PC1):

on PC2:

and on the virtual machines similar configurations to the PC2
as you can see all IPs are from the same subnet.

I really appreciate your help.

Regards,
Ali

Answer 1

I need PC1 to act as a virtual router

Better to stand up a separate instance for RRAS role.
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000118763/configuring-windows-server-2012-r2-as-a-router

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Answer 2

Hi,
From my perspective, you may need to configure a RRAS router for PC1 to complete your purpose. You can refer to the following to create the role.
By your describing, you have one router in your PC1, so you may add a Network Adapter (if you have an internal one then you need to add an external one) first. After that, you may see two adapters, and you could change one the NICs’names for easily being differed.

Now, windows is configured as a router with a private network and an external network connected.
After configuration is done, you could ping from PC1 to the virtual machines and PC2. It should be working.

Best Regards,
Mulder Zhang

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Answer 3

Just checking if there's any progress or updates?

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