Need some Virtualbox for Dummies help here

[scooter123]

Back story. I have an Engineering workstation that has been running Autocad 2000 under Windows XP for the past 17 years and the motherboard for that machine failed yesterday August 18, 2019. Unfortunately motherboards or computers capable of running Win XP are no longer available, spent a LOT of time looking. I will also admit that we should have been upgrading Autocad but that hasn't happened to cost issues and an owner who felt "why replace something that works perfectly with a newer, buggy, version". End result is we have new projects in process that require me to be producing design drawings without interruption.

A hoped for solution is to install Autocad into a Virtualbox running XP Pro SP3. Have a Windows 8.1 32 bit machine built and running with 8.1 being a completely clean install. Also have a Virtualbox running Win XP set up and operating. Currently I have only installed Micrografx Picture Publisher installed to test the function because it has the same compatibility issues as Autocad 2000. What I have found is that I cannot load one single JPG file into the Virtualbox to test Picture Publisher for full function. However I can say it does seem to operate properly.

Now, this workstation has ALWAYS been a non internet machine and customer files that are opened on this machine are "filtered" through our reception computer which is running both Malwarebytes Premium and Norton Antivirus. BTW, Norton and Malwarebytes do work well together and don't seem to do any "head butting" at all. I also rotate two spare hard drives for our reception computer as full Clones so when we got hit with Randsomware last spring all I had to do was swap in a backup Clone. End result is that providing a full communication path between the Host and Guest on this new workstation is risk remote enough that I can accept the risk. Note, I also have 3 drives I can use as Clones for this machine once it's running.

So far I have installed the Virtualbox extensions hoping it would enable me to use a USB portable Hard Drive or even a USB Thumb drive with ZERO success. The ONLY file source that is currently available to the XP Virtual Box is the DVD/CD drive and this just isn't a viable workaround. I have also used the VM Manager to set up a shared folder and it's visible to the Host but not the Guest. BTW re-started several times hoping that would get a shared "Drive" to show up but no success at all.

Now the problem I am having. I am a Mechanical Engineer who does a bit of dabbling in PLC programming when absolutely essential to keep a line running and a Shade Tree Mechanic in regards to Computers. Meaning I can put all the parts together and install operating systems or software but when it comes to something like Networking or Shared Folders I am at a complete LOSS. Reading on this forum has provided me with the thought that if I can set up a private "network" between the Host and Guest that will get me where I need to be.

Problem is I have not EVER even attempted to set up any Windows Networks at all. So I need someone who can provide me with a step by step guideline on how to start up a "network" in Windows 8.1 and get that started up and running in the Virtualbox/XP Operating system. Hopefully doing this will also allow me to communicate between the XP Virtualbox and the Scanner, Small format printer, and Large format printer. BTW, the Large format printer is a 36 inch HP roll printer communicating via WIFI because the company Owner didn't want to drill a hole between the room above my office for a USB cable to connect the printer by "wire". Basically I would like to get my old XP setup running under Virtualbox as close as possible to my old stand alone computer as is possible. Heck, in an ideal world I'd really like to just plug my old Hard Drive into Virtualbox and save re-installing all my software but I believe that just isn't possible.

Note, keep in mind I know NOTHING about doing networks so keep it as simple as if you were privileging instructions for an 8 year old.

PS; while the boss does have a habit of spending a dollar to save a nickel and can be a bit stubborn he is actually a pretty darned good boss and a friend of over 30 years. So don't take my comments about not upgrading or drilling a hole for a printer cable the wrong way, I'm just stating what is what.

[BillG]

Even as a stopgap measure there are a several problems with your proposed solution (most of them not connected to networking or file sharing).

The first is performance. An engineering workstation is designed to do the job it needs to do. A vm emulates a pretty basic PC. The main thing lacking in your case is the graphics card. Even if the PC has an adequate graphics card, the vm cannot see it and will use its own emulated card, which is not really suited to things like Autocad. That is why most computer games will not run successfully in a vm.

The second is wifi. The vm knows nothing about wifi and only has Ethernet adapters. Connecting to a wifi network usually works but there can be problems with some wifi equipment.

The networking and file sharing is doable, but I would like to know more about your office network setup before commenting. Does your physical machine have a network connection to your reception computer? If so, what sort of connection? How does the physical machine connect to the scanners and printers? Wifi?

If your physical Windows machine and the printers/scanners are all on the same local network (wired or wireless) it should be fairly simple to get the vm connected to them as well. After that the file sharing is exactly the same as between two physical machines (which doesn't really help it you have never done that)! But it is all standard Windows file and printer sharing.

[scooter123]

In terms of graphics Autocad 2000 is still rooted in it's DOS origins, so it's a fairly lean program in terms of demands on the machine it's running on. As a result it will actually work without any speed limitations on a rather basic VGA graphics system.

The host computer is not wired into any network at all with the exception of the connection to the Large format printer. Actually we are a bit Stone Age in our office setup and do not have any wired network in place, what we do is walk files back and forth using thumb drives. While it's a bit inconvenient at times one positive of doing this is that we really only need to insure the reception computer is as well protected as possible. BTW, I am aware that doing this does present some risk but it's worked well for for 20 years or so and I make sure that critical computers are Cloned at regular intervals.

Concerning that connection to the large format printer, as I stated I am NOT network savvy and I can just barely get this connection to work after a power failure and the original setup was purely done by plugging stuff in and seeing what happened. What I have is an Ethernet cable running from the computer to a Netgear box with an antenna on it. Then there is a HTML page on my desktop I can open with Internet Explorer to do the "programing" for that box. Technically I don't know if that box is a Router or a Modem but I suspect that it's properly described as a Router. BTW, that is an example of how net savvy I am NOT, I don't even know what to call these dohickies. Don't know the model number for the Netgear thingy offhand and I am at home right now but if it's important I can get that posted tomorrow. What I do know is that if I do a search for the available WIFI connections with my Iphone that large format printer pops up as in range.

As for other connections, the small format printer is connected via USB as is the scanner. Also have a hardware lock for a specialty program called Tubecad that is USB. I should also note that Tubecad may be 16 bit but it did run properly under Windows XP. So, in terms of USB, I will need to get that working in the VM.

One other note is that I am working with two separate hard drives right now. What I do is plug in the SATA cable for whichever hard drive I want to take to the next stage. The reason for this is I totally ball things up I can plug in the hard drive that is a step or two behind and try a different approach. Once I get one drive working at 100% functionality I intend to take the second drive and clone it from the first.

BTW, you may have noticed I am a big fan of Cloning instead of backups. The reason for this is simple, it's a lot faster to get a computer back up and running if all that has to be done is install a clone. Another plus is that I have found it takes about 1/2 to 1/3 the time to completely clone a hard drive than it takes to do a full backup.

Anyhow, thanks for answering and I am looking forward to seeing your next response. I will also note that this is only a temporary fix, once I get the current Robotic Work Cell fully designed and running the boss and I are going to have a long talk about upgrading to newer software and getting me some training on the new software.

[BillG]

OK. As well as the model number of the Netgear device, could you post the output from an ipconfig command on the Windows 8.1 machine. Open a command prompt and type ipconfig and press the return key. That will tell me a fair bit about your network setup.

As it stands it looks like your best option is to use bridged networking in the vm. When the vm is shut down, open Settings and go to the Network section. In the Attached to box you will probably see NAT. From the dropdown list, select Bridged Adapter instead. This should connect your vm to the wifi network that your host machine and the large format printer use. With luck you will be able to share the other devices through Windows file and printer sharing, but we need to get the things networked first.

[scooter123]

Netgear Wireless Firewall Router WCT624 v2

Ethernet adapter ethernet -

media State................................. : media disconnected
connection-specific DNS Suffix ........... :

Ethernet adapter Virtualbox Host-Only network

connection-specific DNSsuffix ............ :
link-local IPv6 Address ..................... : fe80::f18e:c793:c06d:415%7
IPv4 Address ................................ : 192.168.56.1
Default Gateway ............................ :

Tunnel adapter isatap.(985F47A3-AFAB-46C0-8649-92322B00E8EB) :

media State................................. : media disconnected
connection-specific DNS Suffix ........... :

Tunnel adapter isatap.(DD0906A5-21A0-460A-020A-6A8A75AB30DC) :

media State................................. : media disconnected
connection-specific DNS Suffix ........... :

Now changing NAT to Bridged adapter. Still not seeing a thumb drive that is plugged into a USB port that does show up on the host. Do I need to load the USB extention pac BEFORE installing Virtualbox or is there some other way to get USB ports visible to the Guest?

[scooter123]

Found the solution. Had to dig out the vboxguestadditions.iso from the virtualbox folder, burn it to a CD-R, and then install it within the virtualbox. Now I can not only see the shared directory but the Partition I created on the primary hard drive to store my data files is also visible and accessable.

[BillG]

You didn't need to go to so much trouble. If you simply click on the Devices tab of the vm window and select Insert Guest Additions CD Image it will assign the ISO to the guest's CD/DVD drive for you.

Thanks for the info on the Netgear router. That should be fine. You should be able to set up file sharing between your host and guest machines now that they are on the same network. You need accounts with passwords on both machines, then enable Windows file sharing on them both. Windows 8.1 is a one step operation. Windows XP you need to run the Set up a home or small office wizard first. File sharing automatically shares all user's files (documents, pictures etc). To share other files you right-click the file or folder and select Advanced sharing. This is more versatile then VirtualBox shared folders.

Yes, you need to install the extensions package before you can get anywhere with USB. I rarely use USB devices and never use them from vms so I am not the person to talk to about them. Read the USB troubleshooting guide viewtopic.php?f=35&t=82639 and if you have problems, start a new post.