connecting via a virtual switch

Ello all:)

I have used vmware a little bit but i am un-sure of how the networking side of it works.

Here is what i want to do. I have a virtual machine that is connecting to my sftp server on the same pc but it is doing it through the public ip or a domain name i setup. I would rather have it connect through a virtual lan, basically if i remove my physical switch and router, i would still be able to connect to the sftp server.

is this the default behavior of vmware? or do i need to set up the network differently?

thanks