Surface Pro, Hyper-V and Tethered Connection question

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TwoSeven

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#119510 4-Jun-2013 11:08

Hi folks,

I am just trying to set up a VM on a surface pro. I have two scenarios, 1) static connection working from a standard WiFi network and 2) Mobile where I use a tethered Bluetooth connection (IPhone).

In Wifi mode, my network adaptors are Network Bridge, vEthernet (switch) [what the VM is connected to] and Wifi [Bridged] - the VM has access to the host and to the internet. This mode works ok.

In mobile mode, all of the above adaptors get disabled and the Bluetooth network connection becomes enabled. The VM loses connectivity to the host and to the internet (I cant connect to it via remote desktop but can by the hyper-v connection app).

Just wondering if anyone can give some pointers into how I might be able to set the machine up so that I can use mobile mode with VMs. I would have thought that both the VM and Host machine would connect to the virtual switch which would provide an isolation layer above the hardware (wifi or Bluetooth) but this appears not to be the case.

Regards.

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nathan

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#830375 4-Jun-2013 11:17

so it works on WiFi but not BT?

TwoSeven

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#830477 4-Jun-2013 13:16

Yes that is correct. Mainly because of the networking [adaptors] being disabled/enabled.

Worse case scenario is that I can use Wifi if I need to however, apart from battery life on both devices, the IPhone also turns off wifi if the connection is idle for a while; whereas it leaves Bluetooth on (and BT appears to less power) all the time.

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Regs

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Snowflake

#830710 4-Jun-2013 20:50

if you're on 2degrees then you can grab a pocket wifi hotspot for $100 or so and use that with the 'shared data' feature (multiple devices sharing one data plan).

if you're on telecom/vodafone then your best bet is the wifi hotspot on your iphone if you want to avoid additional charges, but the personal wifi would again be the better option.

i wouldnt hold out much hope for the BT option - its not enabled now and i cant see it being introduced any time in the future as it would be such a niche function... there is probably more of a chance of getting built-in 3g/4g in the next versions of surface than in getting a BT NIC going.

see following forum answer for more info:
"Bluetooth Network Interface Cards (NICs) do not appear as Ethernet NICs and are not usable by Client Hyper-V VMs, this is by design."
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverhyperv/thread/bdc4e7db-9260-48f9-a8aa-667ecc395421

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nathan

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#831243 5-Jun-2013 20:16

Hyper-V doesn't support BT, so you're best bet is to do this over Ethernet instead of Bluetooth

TwoSeven

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#831325 5-Jun-2013 21:45

What I would have expected is there to be a bridge to the BT connection (in the same way that there is one for Wi-Fi). I don't know why not leveraging BT is by design (as per link above) I would have thought what is on the other side of the vSwitch would have been irrelevant to hyper-v.

At the end of the day, if I am mobile will just need to switch to WiFi on the IPhone, but it is annoying that it disconnects when idle where BT does not.

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nathan

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#831327 5-Jun-2013 21:49

TwoSeven: What I would have expected is there to be a bridge to the BT connection (in the same way that there is one for Wi-Fi). I don't know why not leveraging BT is by design (as per link above) I would have thought what is on the other side of the vSwitch would have been irrelevant to hyper-v.

At the end of the day, if I am mobile will just need to switch to WiFi on the IPhone, but it is annoying that it disconnects when idle where BT does not.

disconnect on idle, maybe there is a setting for this on the phone?

not something I've experienced with MiFis or Windows Phone

but given its Windows Pro you could install Oracle Virtual Box or VM ware Workstation for example and see what they do to ethernet connections over BT

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TwoSeven

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#831427 6-Jun-2013 07:54

nathan:
TwoSeven: What I would have expected is there to be a bridge to the BT connection (in the same way that there is one for Wi-Fi). I don't know why not leveraging BT is by design (as per link above) I would have thought what is on the other side of the vSwitch would have been irrelevant to hyper-v.

At the end of the day, if I am mobile will just need to switch to WiFi on the IPhone, but it is annoying that it disconnects when idle where BT does not.

disconnect on idle, maybe there is a setting for this on the phone?

not something I've experienced with MiFis or Windows Phone

but given its Windows Pro you could install Oracle Virtual Box or VM ware Workstation for example and see what they do to ethernet connections over BT

I was going to look at Virtual Box as it will also allows nested virtual machines which means I can run (hopefully) the Win Phone emulator in a VM. Hopefully Hyper-V might get an update to support that as well, along with Windows 8 (and Hyper-V) getting decent BT support :)

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