[Solved] WIFI on Dell Laptop Connection to VirtualBox

[JJBlaser]

Hello All,

I've looked through the forums and I have tried doing the suggested answers and replies on how to get the VirtualBox guest to see the host WIFI card, but for some reason I can't get anything to work.

I have a Dell Laptop (Precision M2800) that has a built in WIFI Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC7260 NIC. I also have an Intel Ethernet Connection 1217-LM card.

I need to be able to use both on the guest OS. The host OS is Windows 7 Pro, Service Pack 1. The guest OS is the same. Our company does this because the software we need to use is difficult to install all of the software we need for our business, so we have virtual machines set up for the different types software packages we may need when we go to a customer site.

For this, I need the LAN Ethernet NIC to communicate with our controller that needs to be programmed and the WIFI is being used to connect to the Internet in order to download any needed updates and/or fixes that maybe required for the software.

Yes, I understand I could download on the host machine and save it to a shared folder between the host and the guest, but it would be easier if I could just do it in the guest.

Any way, I have set up a bridged adaptor to both the LAN card and the WIFI card. The LAN card works with no issues, but the WIFI adaptor says that there is no driver loaded for the adaptor. I've tried under the Advanced settings the Adapter Type but none of them work, I keep getting the 'No driver found' fault.

Any suggestions would be great.

Thank you and Best Regards,
John Blaser

[mpack]

I've looked through the forums and I have tried doing the suggested answers and replies on how to get the VirtualBox guest to see the host WIFI card, but for some reason I can't get anything to work.

Virtual machines use virtual hardware. The VM won't see any of your hosts network cards, because PCs don't use other PCs network cards.

The VM will only see simulated network cards. It so happens that all of the NICs which VirtualBox simulates are LAN, not WiFi.

The simplest way for a VM to get a network connection is for you to stop worrying about it, let the software do its thing with the default NAT connection. That way if the host has a network connection then the VM will have one too.

If you insist on overriding the defaults then read the user manual, and in particular the chapter on virtual networking.

[JJBlaser]

Hello mpack,

I understand that the VM uses virtual hardware and that the VM uses simulated NIC's that are LAN based and not Wifi based.

However, in using NAT or a bridge adapter (as was recommended in other posts) as the setting neither will allow the guest to use the Wifi on the host machine to see the Internet.

I will review the user guide again, as suggested. However, as it has been noted on other posts, there seems to be some difficulty in getting the VM to connect through a Wifi connection using the virtual NIC's that VirtualBox has.

And as a side note, now for some reason, it won't connect through the LAN NIC card any more either.

Thank you!

[mpack]

However, in using NAT or a bridge adapter (as was recommended in other posts) as the setting neither will allow the guest to use the Wifi on the host machine to see the Internet.

Neither of those options change what NIC is being simulated in the VM. As I said above, none of the VirtualBox virtual NICs are WiFi.

Please be clear. Do you need WiFi, or are you just trying to get Internet access? If the latter then the usually easiest method is to configure NAT. That means that VirtualBox accesses the hosts default network port like any other host app. To the outside world it looks like the comms are coming from your host. If you want the VM to use the WiFi and WiFi is NOT the default network connection for your PC then you'll need to use bridged networking. However WiFi NICs inside a PC are not designed to share the connection with another PC, so bridging will not always work.

[JJBlaser]

Well, the problem is, as stated above, that I need to the guest to be able to use both WIFI and LAN.

One connection is needed to communicate directly to a processor that is controlling a machine so I can do programming updates.

The second connection is needed so I can download updates to the required software that reside within the guest so that the communication will work correctly with the programming software.

The communication to the processor has to use the LAN connection on the host, it can't be via the WIFI on the host. As there is only one LAN card built into the laptop the other connection on the host that the guest can use is the WIFI card.

In doing what was stated in the manual, previously I could get one connection to work in order to communicate with the processor. The second connection would not connect to the Internet.

In doing research into the issue, I tried to get both connections to work but could not. As it stands now, neither connection is working.

[mpack]

First confirm that your HOST has a working Internet connection using WiFi.

Configure the guest for NAT networking. Boot the guest and confirm that you can now browse the internet from the VM.

Shut down the guest. Now add a second NIC, configure it for bridged networking, bridging to the hosts Ethernet NIC.

Start the VM again. Confirm that the guest OS sees two Ethernet NICs and that you still have Internet access on the first. Appropriate software should be able to make use of the second NIC for talking to your CNC processor (or whatever it is).

[JJBlaser]

Thank you for the help.

Following the steps you laid out above it finally works now.

I appreciate the help and the feedback.

[mpack]

Thanks for reporting back.