We've installed VMWare Server 2.0 on Windows 2008R2. After some time playing with it (actually only removing host-only and nat networks, and binding adapters to the specified vmnets) we've noticed a strange problem: if you change or remove the default gateway on the network card, the server completely loses a network connection you can't ping it from the subnet, it also can't connect to anyone.

When the gateway is removed and a server tries to connect to the other machines, I can see some incoming packets using a sniffer, but I believe they are damaged in some kind (I'm not a mega-guru in TCP/IP and can't find a mistake in a binary translation of the packet) because the other side doesn't respond.

What we tried:

• removed vmware server using add/remove programs
• deleted everything related to the vmware server and all installed network adapters in the windows registry
• double checked for the vmware bridged protocol driver file, it's physically absent and no any links in the registry.
• performed a tcp/ip reset with netsh and disabled/enabled all network adapters in the device manager to recreate a registry keys for them.
• tried another network adapter.

and the situation is the same: as soon you remove or change the default gateway, windows stops working.

The total absurd of the situation is that the default gateway points to the non-existing IP. But when it's set, you can ping a server from the subnet, when you remove it - you can't.

Any help? I'm starting thinking the new build of the VMWare Server is some kind of the malware... :)