Have installed Server 2008 in a VM but no driver found for my Realtek RTL8139 NIC. Have tried the latest Vista driver from Realteks website but NIC is still not recognised. I am surprised there is no driver built into the OS as this must be one of the oldest/commonest NIC there is.

I'm sorry to have to inform you Microsoft Windows Server 2008 only supports Gbit TX-basedNetwork Interface Cards (NICs) out of the box. Since your Realtek 8139 card is a 100Mbit TX-based NIC it is not supported out of the box, as are other popular 100Mbit TX-based NICs (3Com 905s for instance)

I wonder if I am slightly confused here: I previously had a beta version of Server 2008 running a domain with several clients allasseperate virtual machines(VMWare) on one host PC, and I had that all working ok. Now I have installed the latest version of Server 2008 again in a virtual machine, when I look in Device Manager I have no driver for a network controller. I have tried to install the latest Vista driver from Realtek.com but this wont work. Am I mistakingly assuming the controller is the actual host PC,s NIC (which is the 8139), or is it the virtual machines built in controller which requires a driver for Server 2008? I was able to activate/update my beta version ok over the internet by setting TCP/IP to DHCP temporarily (reset to static to run the domain). However I cannot activate my new version beause I cannot access the internet at all from within the Server VM.

This was a VMWare issue. Have downloaded trial of VMWare Workstation 6 and loaded the Server 2008 VM and it installs its own VMNet driver. Have succesfully activated and updated the OS ok now.