Sorry, should have been a little more explicit in my reasoning. When I plug the adapter in, it immediately was disabled. When I right click and enable it in the Win 8 VM, it does nothing. So for playing around, I tried to disable the normal NIC provided by VMWare fusion, and it wouldn't disable. I thought that maybe Fusion's VM Tools had some functionality to force networking to work the way it was configured via Fusion. Lots of conjecture and I unfortunately don't have the gear to A/B test.
When I plug the USB device in, I see this:
2013-02-07T10:45:27.382-06:00| vmx| I120: VUsbUpdateVigorFieldsAndAutoconnect: New set of 4 USB devices
2013-02-07T10:45:27.383-06:00| vmx| I120: USB: Found device [name:Apple\ FaceTime\ HD\ Camera\ (Built-in) vid:05ac pid:8510 path:10/1/1/1 speed:high family:vendor,other,video serialnum:DJHC61ZHWVDNYGE0 arbRuntimeKey:4a quirks:built-in version:2]
2013-02-07T10:45:27.383-06:00| vmx| I120: USB: Found device [name:Atheros\ USB2.0\ WLAN vid:0cf3 pid:9170 path:10/1/1/2 speed:high family:vendor serialnum:12345 arbRuntimeKey:54 version:2]
2013-02-07T10:45:27.383-06:00| vmx| I120: USB: Found device [name:Apple\ Bluetooth\ USB\ Host\ Controller vid:05ac pid:8286 path:13/1/1/8/1/3 speed:full family:vendor,other,wireless,bluetooth arbRuntimeKey:49 quirks:built-in version:2]
2013-02-07T10:45:27.383-06:00| vmx| I120: USB: Found device [name:Virtual\ Bluetooth\ Adapter vid:0e0f pid:0008 speed:full family:wireless,bluetooth virtPath:usb_xhci:6 deviceType:virtual-bluetooth version:2], connected to [Virtual Hub 1, Port 2]
2013-02-07T10:45:27.398-06:00| vmx| I120: USBGA: device 200000540cf39170 arrived
2013-02-07T10:45:27.399-06:00| vmx| I120: USBGA: Autoconnecting new device
2013-02-07T10:45:27.399-06:00| vmx| I120: USB: Connecting device 0x200000540cf39170
2013-02-07T10:45:27.402-06:00| vmx| I120: VUsbUpdateVigorFieldsAndAutoconnect: New set of 4 USB devices
2013-02-07T10:45:27.402-06:00| vmx| I120: USB: Found device [name:Apple\ FaceTime\ HD\ Camera\ (Built-in) vid:05ac pid:8510 path:10/1/1/1 speed:high family:vendor,other,video serialnum:DJHC61ZHWVDNYGE0 arbRuntimeKey:4a quirks:built-in version:2]
2013-02-07T10:45:27.402-06:00| vmx| I120: USB: Found device [name:Atheros\ USB2.0\ WLAN vid:0cf3 pid:9170 path:10/1/1/2 speed:high family:vendor virtPath:usb_xhci:7 serialnum:12345 arbRuntimeKey:54 version:2], connected to [Virtual Hub 3, Port 1]
2013-02-07T10:45:27.402-06:00| vmx| I120: USB: Found device [name:Apple\ Bluetooth\ USB\ Host\ Controller vid:05ac pid:8286 path:13/1/1/8/1/3 speed:full family:vendor,other,wireless,bluetooth arbRuntimeKey:49 quirks:built-in version:2]
2013-02-07T10:45:27.402-06:00| vmx| I120: USB: Found device [name:Virtual\ Bluetooth\ Adapter vid:0e0f pid:0008 speed:full family:wireless,bluetooth virtPath:usb_xhci:6 deviceType:virtual-bluetooth version:2], connected to [Virtual Hub 1, Port 2]
2013-02-07T10:45:27.403-06:00| vmx| I120: VUsbUpdateVigorFieldsAndAutoconnect: New set of 4 USB devices
2013-02-07T10:45:27.403-06:00| vmx| I120: USB: Found device [name:Apple\ FaceTime\ HD\ Camera\ (Built-in) vid:05ac pid:8510 path:10/1/1/1 speed:high family:vendor,other,video serialnum:DJHC61ZHWVDNYGE0 arbRuntimeKey:4a quirks:built-in version:2]
2013-02-07T10:45:27.403-06:00| vmx| I120: USB: Found device [name:Atheros\ USB2.0\ WLAN vid:0cf3 pid:9170 path:10/1/1/2 speed:high family:vendor virtPath:usb_xhci:7 serialnum:12345 arbRuntimeKey:54 version:2], connected to [Virtual Hub 3, Port 1]
2013-02-07T10:45:27.403-06:00| vmx| I120: USB: Found device [name:Apple\ Bluetooth\ USB\ Host\ Controller vid:05ac pid:8286 path:13/1/1/8/1/3 speed:full family:vendor,other,wireless,bluetooth arbRuntimeKey:49 quirks:built-in version:2]
2013-02-07T10:45:27.403-06:00| vmx| I120: USB: Found device [name:Virtual\ Bluetooth\ Adapter vid:0e0f pid:0008 speed:full family:wireless,bluetooth virtPath:usb_xhci:6 deviceType:virtual-bluetooth version:2], connected to [Virtual Hub 1, Port 2]
2013-02-07T10:45:49.935-06:00| vcpu-0| I120: USBGM: Disable port called. (status=0)
2013-02-07T10:46:12.039-06:00| vcpu-0| I120: USBGM: Disable port called. (status=0)
2013-02-07T10:46:34.095-06:00| vcpu-0| I120: USBGM: Disable port called. (status=0)
2013-02-07T10:46:56.201-06:00| vcpu-0| I120: USBGM: Disable port called. (status=0)
Then the "Disable port called" shows up repeatedly and I hear the windows "device disconnected sound" repeatedly. I didn't use to, so something is different.
Thoughts?