Struggled with this for quite some time! The information/fixes I found on the web either didn’t work but the following did thanks to a really helpful video I came across.
If you Run the VMWare’s Network Editor (Program Files (x86)\VMWare\{Player or WorkStation}\vmnetcfg.exe and bind it directly to your network adaptor ( or wireless adaptor). So instead of Bridge to “Automatic”, I ended up setting mine to my “Realtec Ethernet Adaptor”
The link to the original video I cam across : How to fix bridged networking in VMware player
Prior to this I also had success by Initialising the TCP/IP stack in XP:
1. Start | Run : netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt
2. Reboot
You can also run the same command in Vista/Win 7 in a command prompt (as administrator) if needed.
I needed this when I had “limited or no connectivity” on my Bridged VMWare network interface