Dom Cosgrove Blog

If you need to browse your SharePoint site or for that matter any site, hosted on your VPC while you are not connected to a network, read on. If you are not connected to a network the VPC does not get an IP address issued hence why you cannot browse hosted sites. The solution to this is the MS Loopback Adapter. The following shows you how to set up your loopback adapter.

Add Loopback adapter

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel. Then click Add Hardware:
   
2. Select Yes, I have already connected the hardware:
   
3. From the list of devices select Add a new hardware device:
   
4. Select Install the hardware that I manually select from list (Advanced):
   
5. From the list of hardware types select Network Adapter:
   
6. From the list of Manufactures select Microsoft and from the list of Network Adapters select Microsoft Loopback Adapter:
   
7. Click Finish once the adapter is installed.
8. The Loopback Adapter will now appear in you list of Network Connections:
   

Configure Loopback Adapter

1. In the Network Connections right mouse click on the newly created Loopback Adapter and select Properties;
2. From the Properties select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click Properties:
   
3. In the Properties add the IP address as follows:
    
4. Click OK to commit the changes.

Configure VPC Network Adapter

1. On Virtual PC (VPC) Console click Settings;
   
2. On the settings dialog box select Networking and then select Microsoft Loopback Adapter as the 1st Adapter. Click OK;
   
3. On the VPC click the Network icon in the task bar or navigate to the Network Connections through the control panel. The network icon may display a warning message “Limited or no connectivity”. Don’t worry about this at the moment;
   
4. On the Network Connections window, right mouse click on the Local Area Connection and click Properties;
   
5. On the TCP/IP settings for the Network adapter enter the following details. Click OK;
6. You will notice that the network icon on the desktop task bar no-longer displays the warning message;
7. On the VPC, launch the Command Prompt and type IPConfig you should see that the VPC now has the IP address, subnet and gateway that you just entered;
   
8. From the VPC Command prompt ping 192.168.5.10 to confirm connectivity to the host;
    
9. Ensure that you don’t have any network connectivity on your host computer, then from the Command Prompt ping the VPC 192.168.5.11 to confirm connectivity to the VPC;

Configure Host File

If your SharePoint (or website) uses Host Headers then you’ll need to edit your Host file:

1.   Open your Host file C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\host;
   
2. In the host file put the IP address of your VPC 192.168.5.11 and set the host in my case that is scratch;
    
3. You should now be able to browse your SharePoint (Web Site) hosted on a VPC even if you do not have connection to a network;