adb can't connect to 127.0.0.1:5555

I was trying to follow the instructions provided in this reply to the question of having a faster adb. However upon doing step 6, I run into the error unable to connect to 127.0.0.1:5555.

The only difference in my set-up from the one described in the link is that I am using VMware. During VM set-up, I didn't see any options to set-up a "Network: PCnet-Fast III", but it is already set to NAT. (Okay. Pardon me as I am not very comfortable with networking stuff yet.)

Doing netcfg gives me

lo   UP   127.0.0.1 255.0.0.0 0x00000049
eth0 DOWN 0.0.0.0   0.0.0.0   0x00001002

Any hints?

Thanks!

(BTW, sorry if linking to another thread/answer is bad form in StackOverflow. I'm used to forums discussion and, in the thread I linked to, I no longer see anyway to add a comment or something.)

Only 4 months late, but if you have a router at home (which is very likely), then use a Bridged Adapter, so that it becomes another device on your home network. You can then

./adb connect 192.168.0.5