On my VMware internal nat network, when I try to do a simple HTTP request from my guest to my host OS, the arp request from my guest os asks for the MAC address of my host IP and attach it in the destination MAC of the following packets which is totally expected.
When I try the same thing on a real network(i.e on my school's network while my 'guest os' is now directly connected to the real network through a usb wifi dongle), it seems that the ARP request sent out from my 'guest os' now asks for the MAC address of another IP(which appears to be a switch) instead. Why doesn't my guest os just ask directly for the IP address of my host OS like before? How does my guest os know what ip to look for when sending requests?