Duplicate ping response when running Ubuntu as virtual machine (VMWare)

Question

I have the following setup:

My router - 192.168.0.1
My host computer (Windows 7) - 192.168.0.3

And Ubuntu is running as virtual machine on the host. VMWare network settings is Bridged mode. I've modified Ubuntu network settings in /etc/netowrk/interfaces, set the following config:

iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.0.220
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.0.0
broadcast 192.168.0.255
gateway 192.168.0.1

Internet works correctly, I can install packages. But it gets weird if I try to ping something I get this:

PING belpak.by (193.232.248.80) 56(84) bytes of data.
From 192.168.0.1 icmp_seq=1 Time to live exceeded
From 192.168.0.1 icmp_seq=1 Time to live exceeded
From 192.168.0.1 icmp_seq=1 Time to live exceeded
From 192.168.0.1 icmp_seq=1 Time to live exceeded
From 192.168.0.1 icmp_seq=1 Time to live exceeded
64 bytes from belhost.by (193.232.248.80): icmp_seq=1 ttl=250 time=17.0 ms
64 bytes from belhost.by (193.232.248.80): icmp_seq=1 ttl=249 time=17.0 ms   (DUP!                             )
64 bytes from belhost.by (193.232.248.80): icmp_seq=1 ttl=248 time=17.0 ms (DUP!                             )
64 bytes from belhost.by (193.232.248.80): icmp_seq=1 ttl=247 time=17.0 ms (DUP!                             )
64 bytes from belhost.by (193.232.248.80): icmp_seq=1 ttl=246 time=17.0 ms (DUP!                             )
^CFrom 192.168.0.1 icmp_seq=2 Time to live exceeded

--- belpak.by ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 1 received, +4 duplicates, +6 errors, 50% packet loss, ti                             me 999ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 17.023/17.041/17.048/0.117 ms

I think even more interesting are the results of pinging the router itself:

stonerain@ubuntu:~$ ping 192.168.0.1 -c 1
PING 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
From 192.168.0.3: icmp_seq=1 Redirect Network(New nexthop: 192.168.0.1)
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=254 time=6.64 ms

--- 192.168.0.1 ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 6.644/6.644/6.644/0.000 ms

But if I set -c 2:

...
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=252 time=13.5 ms (DUP!)
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=251 time=13.5 ms (DUP!)
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=254 time=13.5 ms (DUP!)
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=253 time=13.5 ms (DUP!)
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=252 time=13.5 ms (DUP!)
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=251 time=13.5 ms (DUP!)
From 192.168.0.3: icmp_seq=2 Redirect Network(New nexthop: 192.168.0.1)
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=254 time=7.87 ms

--- 192.168.0.1 ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, +256 duplicates, 0% packet loss, time 1002ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 6.666/10.141/13.556/2.410 ms

Pinging host machine on the other hand works absolutely correctly: no DUPs, no errors.

What seems to be the problem and how can I fix it? Thank you.

Solution 1

I had been experiencing exactly the same issue, using DHCP on Ubuntu 12.04 as Guest on a Win7 x64 host, using VMware Workstation 8.04. I knew something was wrong in the VMware core as VMware Player 4.0 and VMware Workstation 8.0 share it, but I wasn't sure what was wrong.

But I found the culprit.

It's the Routing and Remote Access service. I had it activated as I configured my Win7 box to accept incoming PPTP connections. Stopping it the problem goes away.

Also, there are other quirks associated with that. Besides the Ubuntu guest, I had a Win XP guest which could not make outbound PPTP connections when bridged. This was also fixed when disabling the RRAS service.

Googling this problem I found other reports about RRAS being the problem, e.g. http://www.codeblog.co.uk/2009/06/22/fixes-and-tweaks/vmware-duplicate-ping-responses/

Solution 2

Additional information:

1. the number of DUPS per ping increases if you re-install VMWARE Player
2. there are no DUPS if you run the same (identical) machine (vmdk disk) using Virtual Box

Conclusion: the problem is not in the network, nor in the Linux OS but somewhere in the VMWare configuration. Maybe something to do with upgrades

Many other posts about this subject mention they are running VMWare on Windows (7) 64 Bit. Does anyone experience the same issue on a 32 environment?

Comments

[Bruno Pereira]

What are your dns servers? Why have you setup the ips manually, your router has no DHCP or you just prefer it this way?

[Stonerain]

dns server = 8.8.8.8; I prefer static ip.