Cannot connect to virtualized ESXi 5 using VSphere

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to set up a lab having ESXi 5 virtualized in VMWare Player 5. I actually have a Win7 laptop with VM Player installed. The laptop is connected to my LAN. I gave the ESXi four bridged NICs and a static IP.

I actually can ping the ESXi and connect with VSphere from another computer on my LAN, but not from the laptop. But from that same computer, I can ping the laptop.

I would like to run VSphere from the laptop itself.

I tried to add a NAT NIC and host-only NIC, that didn't help.

Thanks for any help you could provide.

Martin