virtualbox.org

Hi - I upgraded from an earlier version of VBox/2 where I did not have the TAP driver nad have not installed it.

I do however appear to have full networking capabilities - I am able to map to shares from the OS/2 host, I am able to access the internet etc. etc.

So what is the intention of the TAP driver ? What does it bring please ?

Cheers/2

Ed.

Are you using NAT mode for networking? This usually gives people trouble with internal networks, but has worked for me when I specify the IP address. Or are you using Host Adapter mode? That's what I thought the TAP driver was for, since I bridged that with my ethernet for full network access.

Is it possible you _do_ have the TAP driver installed from a previous version of VBox, and you're still using that in a bridge somehow? Otherwise, I'm not sure how you could have _full_ network access.

edurrant wrote: So what is the intention of the TAP driver ? What does it bring please ?

NAT, which I assumes you use now, blocks all incoming requests, meaning that your Guest can not be accessed from the outside. This will give your guest good protection - but you can't run any server related apps, which require people to be able to connect to the guest. When using NAT, the Guest gets assigned a fixed internal IP address by Vbox.

TAP (Host Interface Networking) Works just like plugging your PC into a switch. There is full networking in both directions, meaning that you can run server related apps, and give access to the whole world. This usually means, that a Win guest gets hacked in less than a minute
When using TAP - you select to bridge the Guest onto one of your existing NICs, so traffic goes in and out through that NIC.
You have to make sure the Guest now gets an IP address, which it usually can get with DHCP, either from a Router with NAT of your own, of from your ISP, if they assign you more than one.

In reply to "over_clox" - no I do not have the TAP driver installed from an earlier version - protocol.ini only has my standard NIC card.

To Yoda - thanks for a very precise and clear answer. So If I wish to run any server like funcyions from the Guest OS, I should use TAP, otherwise (as it seems) NAT is doing a fine job when the guest is a client wanting to access out to other systems.

Cheers/2

Ed.