Sierra Wireless AIRCARD 313U not working on XP32 bit guest

[kpiq]

I have a brand new Sierra Wireless AIRCARD 313U (AT&T USBConnect Momentum 4G) card, proven to work fine with my Win7 SP1 64-bit Virtualbox host.
My Virtualbox guest is WinXP SP3 32-bit. The guest has the USB device filter set up fine for the Aircard 313U, and when the VM is running the corresponding USB device is selected.
The AT&T Communications Manager 9.1.196.7 is installed properly (includes the driver). The device's HSDPA Modem is fine in Device Manager but the WWAN Adapter is not recognized in the guest's Device Manager. I've updated the driver by searching automatically, and also by extracting the driver from the AT&T CM package and manually updating the driver. It just won't start (This device cannot start (Code 10)).
Any ideas?
Regards
Pedro Serrano

[mpack]

I would not use USB to communicate with a wireless dongle unless I had a really good reason, and you have not mentioned any reason.

It would be preferable IMHO to let the host own this device, and let the guest use NAT or bridged networking.

[kpiq]

Reason: Need to connect to work from the guest using VPN tunnel on the company-provided USB dongle while keeping my host on my personal broadband connection.
Letting the host own the device doesn't work right now. Virtualbox 4.1.8 does not show me the USB dongle as an option for NAT or bridged networking in the VM settings.

[Perryg]

The network section of VirtualBox will not show you the device if you are dedicating the device to the guest. Only the USB portion would.
After you are sure that the device is showing in the guest then you configure the guest to use that connection.

[kpiq]

That's assuming that I didn't remove the USB device filter before making the change to the VM settings, which I did. The device was not owned by the guest when I attempted to add the USB dongle network adapter to the VM. It didn't even show up as an option in the drop down list.

[mpack]

Virtualbox 4.1.8 does not show me the USB dongle as an option for NAT or bridged networking in the VM settings.

Well, NAT doesn't offer an option so we'll leave that aside.

For "bridged" you are shown a list of host NICs. The wireless dongle is not a host NIC if it's connected to the guest.

Always think of host and VM as two separate PCs. You are plugging a device into a USB port on PC B and expecting to see it listed on PC A, and that isn't going to happen.

[kpiq]

I think you and I are saying the same thing. Correct me if I'm wrong.

1) With the VM running, I un-checked the Wireless dongle in my guest. I saw it dissappear from the guest's Device Manager.
2) I stop the VM, open the host's Device Manager, verify that the wireless dongle DOES show as being in use by the host, activate the Internet connection in my wireless dongle, wait until the connection is complete, open Virtualbox, right click the VM's definition, click on Settings, go to USB, remove the wireless dongle's USB Device Filter, go to Network, verify the "Enable Adapter" is checked, click on the dropdown list to choose a NIC, and the wireless dongle ISN'T there.

I could swear what you're saying is what I'm doing. But no cigar!

Regards

Pedro

[mpack]

Well, I would unplug the device and plug it back in to the host, to ensure that it goes through its init routines and makes a router connection without being interfered with by a VirtualBox VM. I would then connect to the internet on the host, just to confirm that it's working.

Only then would I run VirtualBox and look at the VM settings.

I should also mention that VirtualBox 4.1.8 network settings dialog has no problem seeing a Netgear USB wireless dongle on the PC I'm using now.

[kpiq]

Done that. Unplugged the aircard, restarted the computer, plugged the card, initiated the connection to the Internet, waited and tested the Internet connection, started Virtualbox, edited the VM, verified the USB device filter(s) were removed, clicked on Network, verified the network adapter was selected, clicked on the dropdown list, no cigar! I think I've thoroughly done what you asked.

Regards

Pedro

[mpack]

In that case I'm afraid I've already suggested everything I can.