We had a strange issue when a VM was rebooted, it would boot up with no network connectivity. This happened irrespective of whether the VMXNET3 or E1000 driver was used. Removing / re-installing VMware tools did not help. Trying different version of vmware tools did not help. Disabling Firewall also did not help. Even did numerous registry changes related to TCPIP and the NICs with no success. It was also not NLA (Network Location awareness)
We would then have to disconnect/reconnect the NIC interact from vCenter / ESXi on the actual VM itself.
The cause of the issue was related to NPCAP version 0.9989 that was installed by Wireshark version 3.2.3 64-bit and any Wireshark that utilised that specific version of NPCAP.
To Fix you can either deselect the “Npcap Packet Driver (NPCAP)” on the interface properties and then reboot the host, or you can un-install wireshark / npcap and then install the new version, in this case it was 3.4.0. We have tested upgrading wireshark as well and it does upgrade Npcap as well...and as usual also verify that it is upgraded npcap driver and remove old npcap driver if present..
So the error being reported was:
Connect to Public Network and not to the Domain network
not connected - no connections are available
No Connections are available
you are currently not connected to any networks
Windows Network Diagnostics Publisher details
=======================================
Issues found
The "Local Area Connection" adapter is not working properlyThe "Local Area Connection" adapter is not working properly Detected Detected
The "Local Area Connection" is experiencing driver or hardware related problems Completed
Issues found Detection details
6 The "Local Area Connection" adapter is not working properly Detected Detected
The "Local Area Connection" is experiencing driver or hardware related problems Completed
Windows Help and Support can provide more information about resolving driver or hardware issues.
Detection details Expand
InformationalDiagnostics Information (Network Adapter)
Details about network adapter diagnosis:
Network adapter Local Area Connection driver information:
Description . . . . . . . . . . : vmxnet3 Ethernet Adapter
Manufacturer . . . . . . . . . : VMware, Inc.
Provider . . . . . . . . . . . : VMware, Inc.
Version . . . . . . . . . . . : 1.8.16.0
Inf File Name . . . . . . . . . : C:\Windows\INF\oem2.inf
Inf File Date . . . . . . . . . : Monday, August 10, 2020 5:49:44 AM
Section Name . . . . . . . . . : vmxnet3.ndis620.x64.ndi
Hardware ID . . . . . . . . . . : pci\ven_15ad&dev_07b0
Instance Status Flags . . . . . : 0x180600a
Device Manager Status Code . . : 0
IfType . . . . . . . . . . . . : 6
Physical Media Type . . . . . . : 14
IP Config reports no IP address configured although it is configured on the NIC.
Route Print returns the following:
IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
127.0.0.1 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
127.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
Network Address Netmask Gateway Address Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 172.25.6.1 1
===========================================================================
Nice, thanks!