I have got a laptop running Arch Linux with 2 interfaces: wireless (wlan0) and ethernet (eth0). I use wlan0 to access internet (static IP, networking is configured using netcfg), and I connect a second PC to the eth0.
Now, whenever I start vmware player (v. 4.0.4), it chooses wlan0 to connect its bridged virtual NIC to, but I need it to connect to eth0 (I want my guest machine to be able to talk to the second physical PC on eth0). So, I disable the wlan0 interface (netcfg -d wireless) and restart vmware. Now, it connects to eth0, and everything works fine; I can ping the host PC from the virtual one, and I can ping the virtual PC from the second physical PC connected to eth0. Then, if I try to reenable the wlan0 interface (netcfg -u wireless), all of the connectivity between the host and the guest (and between the second physical PC and the guest) gets lost, until I disable wlan0 again. Can someone please give me a hint on what's going on?
Don't use VM player. The networking capabilities are limited. The full version will let you choose the desired physical interface so you don't have to "disable interface" to trick vmware.
Or if you are looking for a free one, use virtualbox.