When the virtnetworkd service is first installed on a virtualization host, it contains an initial virtual network configuration in network address translation (NAT) mode.

By default, all VMs on the host are connected to the same libvirt virtual network, named default. VMs on this network can connect to locations both on the host and on the network beyond the host, but with the following limitations:

• VMs on the network are visible to the host and other VMs on the host, but the network traffic is affected by the firewalls in the guest operating system’s network stack and by the libvirt network filtering rules attached to the guest interface.
• VMs on the network can connect to locations outside the host but are not visible to them. Outbound traffic is affected by the NAT rules, as well as the host system’s firewall.

The following diagram illustrates the default VM network configuration: