Parallels Client/Virtual Windows IP address overriding Mac's IP address

[jrosengarden]

I hope somebody can help with this;

I just retired my Apple AirPort Extreme and replaced it with a Google/Nest Wifi router along with an additional Google/Nest Point.  The mesh network has been created successfully.  I changed the routers default DHCP settings so the router is at 192.168.10.1 and it dishes out IP address in the range of 192.168.10.10 thru 192.168.10.250.

Everything is working perfectly...no problems....except this ONE:

My main iMac computer has an IP address of 192.168.10.14
I then set up port forwarding for a specific port (32678)
Once the port forwarding rule is in place....all is well with the world and the application needing that port works perfectly.

I then fire up a Parallels Virtual Windows 11 system on the Mac. 
This virtual Windows 11 computer has an IP address of 192.168.10.29
and then here is the problem:

within moments of firing up the Virtual Win11 computer the Google/Nest router NOW sees the iMac's IP address as 192.168.10.29.  Instead of adding a new device on the network with the address of 192.168.10.29 it REPLACES the IP address for the iMac changing it from 192.168.10.14 to 192.168.10.29.  Of course......the port forwarding rule now fails.

WHY IN THE WORLD is the Google/Nest router not seeing a new device (the Win11 virtual computer) on that IP address and simply adding it AS another device...instead of replacing the iMac's IP address?

The Apple AirPort extreme had NO problems with this...adding my virtual computers as new, individual, devices right along the actual, physical, devices.

Help SOMEBODY????????????

[olavrb]

If those two IPs uses the same MAC address, I see how it might confuse the Nest Wifi/ Google Home port forwarding rule. This is just a guess, but maybe Google Home port forwarding rules binds to MAC, while your previous router binds to IP?

Maybe it's possible to spoof the MAC address of one of the OS-es (preferably the one where you don't have a port forwarding rule to) using the OS built in MAC address anonymizing functionality to get around this?

Or run Windows as a VM inside MacOS, where you configure the hypervisor to use a seperate virtual NIC for the VM, instead of NAT (which Hyper-V for instance defaults to)?

[jrosengarden]

I appreciate the response but....that's not the solution.  Parallels assigns a MAC address to the virtual ethernet card that is part of the Virtual Computer's configuration.  

The Virtual PC's (Win11) MAC address is totally different from the physical iMAC's MAC address.

This overriding of the IP address, within the Google Home app is a HUGE problem...for any of us running Virtual machines.

[olavrb]

I don't have any issues running virtual machines within Hyper-V with "default switch" (NAT). But I don't port forward.

Btw, have you tried to bind the MAC address to a given IP outside the DHCP scope (https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/6274660?hl=en)? That might be smart to do if you are doing stuff like port forwarding. I reserve the first 20 addresses to "static IPs", like my NAS and Google cast speakers.

What happens here might be on a different OSI layer.

[jrosengarden]

Now THAT is an interesting 'rabbit' to try.  I'll give it a whirl.

[jrosengarden]

Well.....that rabbit flamed out!   Set the virtual IP address to a hard/static IP outside the DHCP pool range and...amazingly enough.....the Google/Nest router STILL overrode the iMac's IP address with the hard/static IP address assigned to the virtual machine.

Very strange.....and frustrating.  This is DEFINITELY a "hole" (aka: bug) in the Google/Nest Wifi router's software.

[olavrb]

I'm out of ideas, so I escelated it. Will be interesting to see what causes this.

[jrosengarden]

Thank-you for the rabbits...and for escalating the issue.  I'll be interested, as well, in finding what the problem is!     🙂

[Jeff]

Hey, jrosengarden.

Sorry for the issues you're seeing here. This is definitely an odd one, so thanks to @olavrb for escalating it. I'm going to consult with an internal team here and see if we can get a few more eyes on the issue. Also, thanks for the detailed troubleshooting steps you've taken so far. It always helps when people take the time to do that.

I'll let you know as soon as I know more.

Thanks.

[jrosengarden]

Thanks for the reply.  I eagerly await ANY help you can provide.

[Jeff]

Hey, jrosengarden.

I'm going to escalate your issue to a higher support tier. Keep a look out in your email that you used when signing up for the forums and an agent should be reaching out to you soon.

Thanks.

[jrosengarden]

Looking forward to it.  Thanks!

[Jeff]

Sure thing, jrosengarden. If anything changes in the mean time, feel free to let us know. Hopefully there's a quick fix for the situation!

[jrosengarden]

Problem still exists.  I haven't found any solutions.  No matter what I do the IP address of the physical iMac gets replaced with the IP address of the virtual Windows client...thus invalidating the port forwarding rule for the physical iMac.

One additional piece of info:  When you pull up the port forwarding panel the available devices to select DO NOT include ANY of the virtual Windows PC clients running on the host.....and each of those virtual Windows PC clients have a different, unique, IP address that is on the proper subnet (and a different, unique, MAC address as well).

This will become a problem, once the original problem is solved, in that I had (with the Apple AirPort Extreme router) quite a few port forwarding rules for the virtual Windows clients.  So if the virtual window IP address aren't available for selection on the port forwarding setup panel then it won't be possible to create any port forwarding rules for THOSE IP addresses.

This is getting to be a bigger problem based on the above (and, of course, I gave away the AirPort Extreme already....having faith that the Google/Nest routers would be able to do, at least, anything the AirPort Extreme could do.   😞

[Jeff]

Hey, jrosengarden.

I haven't received any info back on this yet, but I did want to check in with you to see if the same issue persists. We'll keep looking for a solution, but right now I don't have anything new yet on this.

Thanks.

[jrosengarden]

Nothing new, other then the problem(s) still persist.

Somebody DID contact me, on 12/3/21,  after you escalated it.  Asked me for my phone # and a good time to call.  I responded with both pieces of information and have never heard back from them again.

The person was "Billy"  from wificare@google.com. The Case # on the email was 8-1879000031966.  However, as I said, after I responded with my phone # and general time to contact me I've never heard back from anybody.

As much as I'm happy with the Google/Nest Wifi system (it's been working great in my house and the additional Google/Nest Wifi Point has really expanded GOOD coverage thru out the entire house) I'm getting to the point of deciding to dump them and replace them with a LinkSys Wifi.6 router.  Not quite at that point YET....but will be soon if an answer to this problem can't be found.

Thanks for checking in.

[Jeff]

Hi, jrosengarden.

I know this has been taking a while and I'm sure you're quite frustrated with the process. I'm going to follow up on that case number and see what I can learn from that. I'll update if I can find out more for you.

Thanks.

[jrosengarden]

I appreciate you following up.  I haven't heard from anybody (no more "rabbits" to try). I'm convinced there IS no solution...that it is a major flaw/failure in the Google WiFi router that was 'overlooked'.  

This has given me the time to look for a better replacement, and insure I don't wind up in the same 'mess' as I am now.  I'm thinking of replacing the Google Wifi Router and Access Point with AmpliFiAlien 6 Wifi System (router and 1 access point).  Kind of expensive, especially after spending the money on the Google Wifi Router & Access Point.  Still 'thinking'.....and frustrated that I can't get my Port Forwarding back 'alive' again. 

Oh well....so it is with technology.!!!    🙂

[Jeff]

Hey, jrosengarden.

It's been some time since we touched on this, but I wanted to circle back and see if things were still the same for you or if you happened to make any progress. I still have not found any answers to this. I'm hoping that we can hear something from an internal team soon. Let me know if you have seen any changes.

Thanks.

[jrosengarden]

Hi:

Things are still the same...Port Forwarding is almost impossible with this ongoing issue.

I haven't replaced the Google Router +Access Points....YET....but will soon if this can't be resolved (which is going to require a code change on Google's part and then a firmware update to the Router & Access points).

[Jeff]

Ok, thanks for letting me know, jrosengarden.

I'll let the internal teams know what we're looking at here and I'm hoping we can come up with a workable fix for you.

Thanks.

[aameri]

I have the exact same issue. Any solution?