[Solved] Bridged network problems

[WC]

I am having a problem with VirtualBox and I haven't found the same thing when searching the forum or Internet. I have found something similar when working with wireless network adapters, but not wired. I cannot get the bridged network connection to work.

I'm currently using VB 5.2.6 r120293 on Windows 10 64-bit Enterprise 1709. It worked recently (when I was on an older version of VB, but I don't recall what version that was) and possibly before 1709 accidentally got pushed to my machine. I'm not precisely sure of the timing. I just know that VB stopped working so I uninstalled it. Then I couldn't reinstall unless I unchecked bridged network during setup. I have tried installing different versions of VB (using run as admin), but I'm not getting anything to work. I tried the newest version yesterday to see if that would help. I have looked for updates to my network adapter, but that didn't help either.

It doesn't seem to matter what the VM itself is. None of my VMs had bridged network working.

Any thoughts?

[socratis]

Bridged and wireless don't always play nice. It may or may not work. Some combinations of Routers/Access Points, WLAN cards and drivers work, some don't. See: Bridging & Wifi - Supported hardware and add your experience. Try to see if it works either with wired bridged or with NAT.

[WC]

Sorry it I wasn't clear. I am wired which is why I'm stumped. I found documents on wireless dealing with this similar issue.

[socratis]

Oops, I misread the issue. If you have any antivirus enabled, uninstall them before installing VirtualBox. Not disabled, uninstalled.

1. Uninstall VirtualBox. Your VMs are going to be untouched. Reboot.
2. You may want to clean up your registry and/or filesystem at this point. CCleaner is a freeware utility that could help you. Mind the installation, it comes with "offers" from 3rd parties, known as "bundleware". Also, check out Device Cleanup program that helps you to remove any unused devices from your computer.
3. Download (if you haven't already) the latest VirtualBox and its matching ExtPack. Store them in a common location, i.e. not on "Desktop", or "Documents", but to "Public/Downloads" for example.
4. Locate the downloaded file in Windows Explorer. Right-click on the installer and select "Run-as-Administrator", even if you are the administrator. At the end of the installation, choose to "Start Oracle VM VirtualBox". Do not worry if your VMs do not show up.
5. If you're going to install the ExtPack, go to File » Preferences » Extensions. Click on the icon with the orange, down-pointing arrow on the right. Select the ExtPack from the previous steps.
6. Quit VirtualBox. Re-start VirtualBox as you would normally, i.e. from the Desktop shortcut or the Start menu.
7. Update the Guest Additions (GAs) in your guest(s), if the GAs are available for a specific guest.

[WC]

I can't get past step 4. It won't install if I keep bridged networks checked in the setup. Errors attached.

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sshot-7.png (3.02 KiB) Viewed 30159 times

[socratis]

Something is blocking the installation of a network driver on your system. Most of the times it turns out to be an overzealous antivirus, that's why I mentioned if first in my previous reply. Other than that, I don't really know, it's a Windows installer issue, not a VirtualBox one. VirtualBox isn't even running at that point.

[WC]

If others have the same problem, it was my antivirus. I uninstalled Trend on my PC and then when I installed VB and it gave me no error. Reinstalled Trend and bridge network was still working. My VM started fine and had its own IP. Yeah!

[socratis]

Marking as [Solved].

[Gerry07]

Wanted to post my solution as I struggled through every solution to get bridged networking to work. I was completely stumped and found that even VMWare Workstation didn't work. Thought it had something to do with the NIC in my system, but actually it was my switch. My switch had port security enabled where the switch was monitoring MAC addresses on individual ports and was blocking traffic from any newly introduced MAC addresses beyond my physical machine. Turning this off solved the problem.

[socratis]

My switch had port security enabled...and was blocking traffic from any newly introduced MAC addresses beyond my physical machine.

Thanks Gerry07, something to keep in mind...

But you would have had this problem if you had introduced another physical computer in your LAN, right? I have the same setup for my wireless router; only allowed MACs have access.