Troubleshooting Hamachi network adapter connection and installation issues

You can remove the Hamachi driver files or manually install the Hamachi network adapter to resolve the issue.

When you try to install the Hamachi adapter, you may see one of the following errors:

There is no hash in the specified catalog file. The file may be corrupted or tampered with.

Failed to connect to the adapter.

Failed to connect to engine.

This is because the following driver files have different modified dates, and Hamachi cannot install the Hamachi Network adapter:

sys file
inf file
cat file

The adapters are located in C:\Program Files (x86)\LogMeIn Hamachi\x64 (for 64-bit systems) or C:\Program Files\LogMeIn Hamachi (for 32-bit systems).

The following sections contain instructions on how to resolve other related issues.

Make sure the network adapter is enabled

Make sure the network adapter is enabled in Network Connections, as follows:

Press the Windows key + R.
Result: The Run box is displayed.
Type Control Panel and press Enter.
Result: The Control Panel window is displayed.
Select either Network and Sharing Center or Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center.
On the left side of the window, select Change Adapter Settings.
Result: Network Connection options are displayed.
Right-click on the Hamachi adapter and select Enable.
Result: A dialog box saying Enabling... is displayed.

Remove the Hamachi driver files

Tip: Before proceeding, you need to have hidden files visible in Windows. Go to Control Panel > File Explorer Options > View to set hidden files to visible.

Uninstall Hamachi.
Restart your computer.
Verify the .sys, .inf, and .cat files are removed from C:\Program Files (x86)\LogMeIn Hamachi\x64 (for 64-bit systems) or C:\Program Files\LogMeIn Hamachi (for 32-bit systems).
- If they are, download and install Download Hamachi for Windows (MSI).
- If they are not, manually delete the files then download and install Download Hamachi for Windows (MSI).

Manually install the network adapter

Important: iOS devices are not supported.

You can try the following methods to repair the connection to the Hamachi network adapter.

Disable your software firewall (unless it is the Windows Firewall) reboot, and try again.
Open Device Manager and manually enable the driver for Hamachi Network Interface. Then start Hamachi and see if it can connect.
- If it can, then something is not working properly in Device Management on your system, which might be caused by a driver (not necessarily a networking one).
- Troubleshooting this would be done by booting in safe mode, manually starting the virtual adapter, and then running Hamachi. You can then start turning devices on, one by one, until the conflict is found.
Check your Network Connections folder and see if Hamachi's adapter is called Hamachi, and not something like Local Area Connection 4. If it is not named Hamachi, then rename it to Hamachi and try running the application again. Make sure that Network Connection Hamachi is activated.
Type services.msc, and press Enter. Then ensure the DHCP Client and Network Connections services are running.
You may need to check your network adapter for Winsock issues. More information on Winsock can be found here.

If none of the above helps, then there is something on your system that is overriding default access control for system drivers, in which case you need to isolate and disable this component.

In some cases, Windows fails to properly install the network adapter and there is no Hamachi adapter listed in the Network connections folder. In this case, you may have to manually reinstall the network adapter as follows:

Go to Start > Run, and type hdwwiz.cpl. If you receive an error, or your computer runs on Windows 7 or Vista, try again with hdwwiz only.
- If it begins searching immediately, let it finish, then choose Yes, I have already connected the hardware.
- If it displays the currently installed devices, scroll down to the bottom.
Choose Add a new hardware device. If it is not there, go to the next step.
Choose Install the hardware that I manually select from a list (Advanced).
Select Network adapters.
Select Have Disk and then Browse.
Browse to the installation folder, and select the hamdrv.inf setup information file.
Select the Hamachi Virtual Ethernet Adapter driver.
Finish the installation of the adapter.
Check your Network Connections folder and see if Hamachi's adapter is called Hamachi, and not something like Local Area Connection 4. If it is not named Hamachi, then rename it to Hamachi and try running the application again. Make sure that Network Connection Hamachi is activated.

Important: If your anti-virus software reports or blocks Hamachi-2-ui.exe, you must add an exclusion for the Hamachi-2-ui.exe program. Please consult your anti-virus software documentation for assistance with adding an exclusion to the allowed list.

Enable the DHCP client

Enable the DHCP Client and Network Connections services in services.msc.

Press the Windows key + R.
Result: The Run box is displayed.
Type services.msc and press Enter.
Result: The Services window is displayed.
Locate and right-click the DHCP Client service and select Start.
Result: The DHCP Client service is started.
Locate and right-click the Network Connections service and select Start.
Result: The Network Connections service is started.
Locate and right-click the Hamachi Tunnelling Engine service and select Restart.
Result: The Hamachi software should restart.

Set a static IP for the Hamachi adapter

This requires that Hamachi has been run at least once, and you have been assigned a virtual IP.

Go to your Network Connections.
Right-click the Hamachi network adapter and select Properties.
Select the TCP/IP item (TCP/IP v4 on Vista).
Select Properties.
Use your Hamachi IP address and 255.0.0.0 as the Subnet Mask. You can leave the Default Gateway empty, or use 25.0.0.1.

Other resolutions

Ensure your personal firewall is allowing traffic for Hamachi, specifically, traffic to/from 25.0.0.1.
Disable the firewall on the machine experiencing the error.
Run WinSock to revert certain Windows networking registry values to their defaults. For details, read this Microsoft support article.