Virtual Machine Network Driver for Device Emulator

Abhi and Amit had both posted blogs on getting network conenctivity to the Device Emulator. The post described in detail how to setup an Activesync partnership between the DE and Visual Studio and cradle the emulator as a device.

We have seen requests lately about using the emulator with transposts other than TCP. To quote, "While using the emulator/DMA/ActiveSync connection is fine for TCP communication it won't work for UDP communication since ActiveSync pass-through does only support TCP communication. Also, the emulator images included with WM 5.0 SDKs do not support RNDIS."

This articulated the need for the Virtual Machine Network (VM Net) driver and configure the device emulator to have its own networking capability. We are happy to inform you that we are offering the VM Net Driver as a CTP web download. This release is provided "as-is" with no support or guarantees.

The download with clear instructions can be obtained from here: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=dc8332d6-565f-4a57-be8c-1d4718d3af65&displaylang=en

Background:

The VM Net driver, which was dropped from Visual Studio RTM, is the same same driver that Virtual PC/Virtual Server uses for network connectivity. It allows the Device emulator's OS (or even the Virtual PC OS, as the case may be) to emulate its own network connection. Since the physical network interface on the host machine is now "virtualized", you have a way to get two IP Addresses - one for the host PC, and one for the operating system that is running within the Device Emulator (or Virtual PC). Device Emulator users using the VMNet Driver can connect to the host machine over TCP or UDP as the alternative to the standard "Activesync over DMA" solution.

Thanks,

--Anand