From: "Rich Gauszka" 

Thanks. I don't think the MAC address is changing as I haven't done any of
the actions that would change it's assigned address - They  appear to be
the deafult ones that are assigned for the 2 virtual adapters in
Workstation. I may just set them manually just in case

http://kb.vmware.com/vmtnkb/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=507&s
liceId=SAL_Public&dialogID=10445252&stateId=0%200%2010443166&doctag=Author,%20K
B%20Article

When a virtual machine is powered on, the VMware application automatically
assigns it a MAC address. The software guarantees that virtual machines are
assigned unique MAC addresses within a given host system. However, the
software does not guarantee that a given virtual machine is assigned the
same MAC address every time it is powered on. In addition, the VMware
application does its best, but cannot guarantee, to automatically assign
unique MAC addresses for virtual machines running on multiple host systems.
A conflict may arise, for example, if the virtual network adapters on
different physical servers share the same subnet and are assigned the same
MAC address.
Avoiding MAC Changes

To avoid changes in the MAC address automatically assigned to a virtual
machine, you must not move the virtual machine's configuration file. Moving
it to a different host computer or even moving it to a different location
on the same host computer changes the MAC address.

For more information about editing a virtual machine's configuration file
(.vmx), see www.vmware.com/support/kb/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1714.

Manually Assigning a MAC Address in Workstation and GSX Server

If you want to guarantee that the same MAC address is assigned to a given
virtual machine every time, even if the virtual machine is moved, or if you
want to guarantee a unique MAC address for each virtual machine within a
networked environment, you can assign the address manually instead of
allowing VMware Workstation to assign it automatically.

To assign the same, unique MAC address to any virtual machine manually, use
a text editor to remove three lines from the configuration file and add one
line. The configuration file has a.vmx extension at the end of the
filename. On a Linux host, a virtual machine created with an earlier VMware
product may have a configuration file with a .cfg extension.

Remove the three lines that begin with the following from the configuration file:

ethernetN.generatedAddress
ethernetN.addressType
ethernetN.generatedAddressOffset Add the following line to the configuration file:

ethernetN.address = 00:50:56:XX:YY:ZZ In this line, XX must be a valid
hexadecimal number between 00h and 3Fh, and YY and ZZ must be valid
hexadecimal numbers between 00h and FFh. Because VMware Workstation virtual
machines do not support arbitrary MAC addresses, you must use the above
format.

So long as you choose a value for XX:YY:ZZ that is unique among your
hard-coded addresses (where XX is a valid hexadecimal number between 00h
and 3Fh, and YY and ZZ are valid hexadecimal numbers between 00h and FFh),
conflicts between the automatically assigned MAC addresses and the manually
assigned addresses should never occur.


"Robert Comer"  wrote in message
news:45d31ecc$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> Make sure the NIC address is not set to dynamic -- I saw this same thing
> in Virtual Server. (I don't know of VMware has dynamic Nic addresses, I
> don't run it enough.)
>
> --
> Bob Comer
>
>
>
>
>
> "Rich Gauszka"  wrote in message
> news:45d24d6d$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>> Vista Business ( MSDN ) running in Vmware Workstation 5.5.3.  ( no
>> changes or updates to VMware ) has required reactivation every time I've
>> run Windows Update. I'm in the 3rd 'your activation period has expired'
>> scenario right now. Since I've already activated twice already I've
>> decided to give up as not to use up my MSDN product keys with a braindead
>> Vista activation scheme
>>
>
>

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