Networking problems on a Bridged Network Connection

[gu99roax]

I run various versions of Windows as guests and I cannot access shares on other WIndows computers from any of these guest OSes. I can access the CIFS shares on the host OS though. I have also discovered that the Windows XP x64 OS doesn't respond to ping from other computers in the network.

The host system consists of OSOL snv_b134 using VirtualBox 3.2.8 with two NICs where one is configured for the host os (rge0) using nwam and the other one (rge1) is bridged with the guest os. Here are the results from the ifconfig command in the OSOL host:

$ ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=2001000849<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4,VIRTUAL> mtu 8232 index 1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
rge0: flags=1004843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,DHCP,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 8
inet 10.40.137.197 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 10.40.137.255
rge1: flags=1000943<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,PROMISC,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 9
inet 0.0.0.0 netmask ff000000
vboxnet0: flags=201000842<BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4,CoS> mtu 1500 index 10
inet 0.0.0.0 netmask 0
lo0: flags=2002000849<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv6,VIRTUAL> mtu 8252 index 1
inet6 ::1/128
rge0: flags=2004841<UP,RUNNING,MULTICAST,DHCP,IPv6> mtu 1500 index 8
inet6 fe80::4261:86ff:fe8d:10ff/10

Running ipconfig in the WinXP x64 guest yields:
Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : winsxpguest
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/1000 MT Desktop Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 08-00-27-98-B4-33
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.40.137.195
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.40.137.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.40.137.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.40.137.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : August 16 2010 21:22:32
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : August 16 2010 21:22:31

I can ping myself inside the guest but not from the host OS or any other computer in the network.

[jimklimov]

Just in case, did you rule out firewalling problems?

Windows XP and later do prohibit incoming ICMP by default, and only permit a few protocols, i.e. "File and Printer Sharing" allowed to current NIC's subnet.

To rule out the OS firewall you can try to disable firewallng (NIC properties / Advanced tab).
There may also be firewalls built into antivirus products; method of fighting them depends on the product.

If that's the culprit, you can later fine-tune the rules as to allow whatever you need and return the firewall.

Also, I'm not certain that a guest bridged on rge1 should connect to host address on rge0 via some loopback (i.e. as it happens for local zones regardless of interfaces used).

Are both rge0 and rge1 plugged into the same ethernet segment?

Is rge1 "plumbed" in the host OS?

Personally, I've seen similar problems when I tried to bridge VMs on Solaris 10 hosts with VLAN interfaces (i.e. e1000g81000). Seems that the VirtualBox network packet constructor interfered with VLAN interfaces. All worked ok with "basic" interfaces like e1000g0, though. And with VNICs on OpenSolaris (with whatever VLAN on whatever interface the VNIC is attached to).

My guess is that for an OpenSolaris host you should try to create a VNIC attached to either physical NIC, as is documented indeed. The VNIC on OpenSolaris should also have the same MAC address as you have configured for your VM's interface, and it should be unique in your LAN (different from host's MACs as well).

Hopefully, any of these ideas help,
Jim