Bridge Adapter Problems with Setup

[Erudes]

Hello everyone, newbie to the forums here...

I am trying to set up something very simple, however running into some problems on the way:

I have a host Windows Machine, and two guest VM's running Windows 10 as well, and both configured with Bridge Adapter on "Network" settings.

My host machine has an IP of 192.168.0.103 and default gateway of 192.168.0.1 which is simply the home router.

Guest machines have IP addresses of 192.168.0.89 and 192.168.0.90.

I was able to configure all firewalls to allow connectivity between them, I can ping all the way, but the problem is with Windows File Sharing. I am able to share folders from both guest machines and access them via the host, but the only thing I CANNOT do is to access shares created on my host machine via \\192.168.0.103\sharename, no error messages regarding permissions, just that the guests cannot find the net path...

Any other advise you can give me? I already configured the host machine through network center to allow access password unprotected too, does not seem to work. If you need any type of screenshots just let me know

[BillG]

It probably has nothing whatever to do with VirtualBox. File sharing on Windows 10 is far from reliable or consistent. You will plenty of similar problems with physical machines in the Technet forums.

I would steer clear of unprotected access. Stick with all machines having usernames and passwords and use normal Windows file sharing.

Can you see the host machine in the Network display and access its shares that way? If you cannot see the host at all, try resetting its network config. (Network reset from Network & Internet settings or netcfg -d from a command prompt, then restart to rebuild it).

It should work. Once the vm gets the correct IP, there is no difference between a physical machine and a virtual one (or a mobile phone or an Internet radio or any other device). The network protocols only see things like IP and MAC addresses.

Shares.PNG

Win10onFred is, unsurprisingly, this vm running on Fred. Bob is another physical machine on the LAN. Readyshare is a Samba server in the LAN.

[Erudes]

Hey thanks for replying!

I just reset the network adapter configuration via cmd as you just prompted, it gave me a couple of errors but then asked me to reboot the PC.

What's the way of doing it through network center GUI?

So, sadly, Im still not able to see the host on Network through file explorer, not even on the host itself (I dont think it works like that though), I can still ping and access guest shares.

Any other comments or suggestions? Maybe adding a host only adapter? or is that going to create an isolated bridge with those two PC's only?

[socratis]

Windows name resolution is finicky, at best. I've had various degrees of success with having their names resolved. And for the longest time it's been bugging me that I couldn't see my VMs from my OSX host, but I could see them from other VMs or another OSX computer in the network.

So your post "forced" me to dedicate some time to solve this once and for all. I setup 2 OSX (10.11.6, 10.9.5) computers, 1 Win7-64 computer, 2 NAS servers, 1 OSX 10.9.5 VM and 1 Win7-32 VM. Only after about 10 min and after relaxing some firewall rules^[1] I was able to have the majority of the "computers" see each other. Not everyone seeing everything, but about 80% of the combinations. So my advice is to give it some time for the Windows elections to take place, and a relaxed firewall policy at the beginning. Then you start tighten things until you have a satisfactory result.

---

^[1]: For those on OSX I had to explicitly allow kdc, launchd, netbiosd, sshd-keygen-wrapper. Not sure if all were needed or not but the netbiosd is a must (I'd say).

[Erudes]

Well I've tried a lot of stuff with firewall, I even disabled it on host, but no luck

PS: Tried removing bridge adapter on one of the VM's, added host only, I cannot ping the host (host unreacheable) nor share folders, and of course no internet access

IS this behavior ok?

[BillG]

File sharing using host only is pretty hopeless. Host only is not routable (it is for host to guest only) and Windows will identify the network as public, which does not allow normal file sharing. Stick with bridged. The problem is with Windows 10 networking, not VirtualBox. The problems I have with vms on bridged are exactly the same problems that I have with physical machines on the same LAN. Your problem seems to be on the host, if the host cannot see itself in the Network display.

This is really not the forum to discuss Windows problems. If you are really interested you can try the Technet Windows 10 networking forum, but don't expect a simple answer. There are plenty of different problems.

The GUI network reset in Windows 10 is here.

Reset.PNG

[Erudes]

Ill try post something on Windows 10 Forums and see what's up.

Additionally, tried with host only adapter, it's the same thing... so sad

PS: By the way, what is the best way to set up a host only adapter? do I have to use specific IP address space to communicate?

PS2: Just tested it, it works like a charm with my IP config but still not able to reach the host via share, I can ping it, and the host can access guest share through new IP assigned, so it is indeed a problem with the machine. Im thinking that VMs have a most recent version of windows 10 and that could be causing the problem, cause Firewall, and Windows settings are they way they should be.

I googled a little bit and no one has a right answer for this matter, it never ends

[socratis]

what is the best way to set up a host only adapter?

Accept the defaults, until such point where you know what you're doing? That's the safest bet.

do I have to use specific IP address space to communicate?

Of course. The default that I mentioned is 192.168.56.0/24.

[Erudes]

Did not see your reply prior editing:

PS2: Just tested it, it works like a charm with my IP config but still not able to reach the host via share, I can ping it, and the host can access guest share through new IP assigned, so it is indeed a problem with the machine. Im thinking that VMs have a most recent version of windows 10 and that could be causing the problem, cause Firewall, and Windows settings are they way they should be.

I googled a little bit and no one has a right answer for this matter, it never ends

[BillG]

It is unlikely to be a difference in Windows 10 version. The current system of file sharing was introduced in Vista. The latest versions of Windows 10 do have problems sharing with XP and earlier.

[socratis]

Take also a look at another, similar thread: No Connection to other Workgroup computers in XP Guest.

In there BillG suggests to enable "NetBIOS over TCP/IP" which may help you...

[BillG]

NetBios 0ver TCP/IP is really old news (wikipedia says early 80's, and that sounds about right) , and should not be required for anything these days. It was introduced when Microsoft first started experimenting with TCP/IP so that they could use their old Netbios API on TCP/IP instead of their proprietary protocol on simple non-routable networks. It only works on IPv4. There is no way to implement it in IPv6. (Think computer browser service, SMB1, LAN broadcasts with hubs not switches). It should not be required in systems which use DNS names.

Despite the fact that it should not be required, it does sometimes solve file sharing problems, but only if the network has old systems which use the old NT-style system file sharing (computer browser service, SMB1 and LAN broadcasts). The old system still works for Windows 10 if you enable SMB1 (but is not recommended because of SMB1's security risks). It means your Windows 10 system is using the old NT-style computer browsing (with all its own problems), so it can see WinXP and old Samba shares. I have a set of vms going back to Win98 and can get files from one to another. (Sometimes it takes two steps, using XP as a step between Win 10 and NT/Win98).