Microsoft Websites on Win XP running on Parallels inside Apple MAC OS X

[wuthless_]

Hey All,

I have a weird one for ya. I have users unable to connect to any Microsoft website (msn.com, microsoft.com, etc) on Windows XP running on Parallels 3.0 (and higher) inside Apple MAC OS X 10.5.X Leopard. Here's how I replicated their setup:

- Connect to the internal LAN via Network Connect on your MACs running Apple OS X (10.5.x)
- Initiate Parallels 3.0 or higher and start a Windows XP instance

I am able to access both internal sites and external sites (including Microsoft sites) via Safari or Firefox on OS X.

I am able to access internal sites and external sites via IE or Firefox running on Windows XP inside Parallels (using the tunnel established by Network Connect running on the Apple MAC) EXCEPT for Microsoft Websites. The request from the browser just hangs.

I ran wireshark and it says I'm getting 'TCP Dup ACK' and 'TCP retransmissions'. I lowered my MTU but that didn't seem to fix the problem.

Does anybody know how to resolve this issue?

[Automate_]

I'm not a product expert, but I don't think what you're trying is actually supported (even though it might work in certain cases). Network Connect isn't intended as a general purpose multi-host tunnel. Since you're almost certainly going through a NAT at some point (maybe multiple points), I can forsee instances where the return packets have no clue where to go.

Microsoft sites have some of the strongest anti-ddos measures known - so I can conjecture that may have something to do with why some sites work but not Microsoft.

Evidence would be to run Network Connect natively on the guest VM (bridged or NAT) - if that works you have your workaround as well.

-Keith