sorry for the length of text on my problem, but i've tried to be fairly detailed ...please read on:
1and1.co.uk sell dedicated online servers. i purchased one of these with 2 ip address's with the intention of installing vmware and using one of the public ip's on a virtual adapter, bridged to my host adapter (and therefore allowing the vmware server to be viewable from the internet).
however... soon after getting the 1+1 login for my new server, i found that adding the ip's to the server was a little more complicated.
they gave me 2 public ip address's...lets say:
80.0.0.80
80.0.0.70
but told me that to apply them to the server i would have to use the subnet mask 255.255.255.255 and default gateway: 10.255.255.1
straight away you can see the problem.... the gw is not in the same subnet as the ip address... and the subnet mask allows you to only talk to yourself (theorhetically anyway!)..... because it does work on their servers.
to add these ip's to the network interface however, they require you to use their own tool (obviously as the windows built in interface for adding ip's would never allow the subnet/ip/gw combo above). This tool (i believe) make registry changes for the ip address's to function...and true enough, both ip's are acessible from the internet and work fine (if on the host server alone).
now... for me to install virtual server and use one of these ip's, i would normally leave 1 public ip on the real server, then use bridging and assign the other ip on the vmware server....the thing is adding that ip/subnet is a little difficult unless i use the same tool (or reg changes).... anyway..getting to the point... i used the tool on the vmware server (also running 2003 server (sbs rather than the hosts 2003 std) but no joy on any internet access.
I think 1and1.co.uk are using some sort of mac-address 802.1x authentication on their switches/routers, so the virtual servers mac addresss is failing.... in which case... i think i would need to use nat to get around the problem.
what nat though? nat the VMnet0 (bridge) adapter after it has both public ip's on the real servers nic (then port forward?)....
or should i use a true nat with say VMnet8 (which would be on another subnet range).... in which case.. how would incoming requests on the public ip's reach the vmware server? would port forwarding work in this case seeing as im using a virtual adapter and not the real nic (or bridging the real nic).
any suggestions would be great... obviously i've been put into a pickle as i have to supply an exchange server to a new client on wednesday, but 1and1 failed to mention funky subnets & gateways on the sales area of the site (im guessing the use of 255.255.255.255 is to maximize the number of ip's they can give out (bypassing broadcast addresss's etc)).
p.s. i've phoned 1and1.co.uk loads of times now... but their tech support gets lost everytime i say either "mac-address" or "vmware" (if they havent dropped the call or forwarded me to the wrong dept that is).....frustrating indeed.