PPPoE in guest system

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Linux hosts.
nobodie
Posts: 51
Joined: 20. May 2007, 11:46
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PPPoE in guest system

Post by nobodie »

Here I am in China, where the only internet connection for my apartment requires an unsigned windows script to create a virtual WAN minihub that connects via PPPoE to an ADSL router. This allows me the free access I am supposed to get as a teacher here. The script doesn't work in my host OS (Ubuntu 7.04) of course, only in Windoze, which I have up and running (WinXP pro) as my guest system in VB.

So, what I need to do is to use VB to run my primary connection to the internet, not through the linux connection, which can't work.

Now, I have read some of the How-to's but they assume that you can get a Linux hosted line to the internet, which I can't. In the past I easily had the guest running on my DSL connection, but I controlled the router and had a nailed up connection. This is very different.

I have tried a number of work- arounds, but nothing works. It seems clearly to be a network issue, since the VB guest is not connecting to the LAN outside the host/guest interface.

I am stumped, but the replies to this forums give me hope that there is a good solution to this problem. Especially important since this unsigned script is rather poorly done and quickly destabilises the system (my daughter is running a dual boot with XP and we have had to reformat the XP partition twice and run system restore on a bi-weekly basis to keep the connection running. VB snapshots would solve a lot of these problems for me.

Thanks in advance for your help. :?:
as in the past, the future is in eggs
Ingo
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Joined: 22. Aug 2007, 10:13
Location: Germany

Post by Ingo »

Your description is very abstract. I do not understand what your problem is. What is this unsigned script? Is it a clear text script, e.g. cmd or vbs or a dialup script or something else? There is no way to direct access the NIC on the host within a guest. All the network communication from the guest to the world must go thru the host. But there are several ways.
nobodie
Posts: 51
Joined: 20. May 2007, 11:46
Primary OS: Fedora other
VBox Version: PUEL
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Post by nobodie »

Thanks for writing back so quickly Ingo, I apologize for my vagueness. The situation is this. I am a teacher living in a supplied apartment off campus in China. The apartment supplies free ADSL through PPPoE. This PPPoE connection however uses an unsigned Windoze script called "Amtium v1.1" produced by a company in GuangZHou.

The result of the script is that, at the least, it creates a WAN minihub and installs it as the PPPoE device. This gives me a virtual network connection. It also, if I understand the documentation available on line (but its all in Chinese of course) is a system that controls access to the router, which is located at 192.168.0.1 (which means I can't use my daughter's dual boot (windoze/ Ubuntu) box as a server for both computers).

So, the Ubuntu box I use is not dual boot, and I don't want it to be. What I would like to do is to run the Amtium script in VB (which I have done) and use it to create the hub and then connect the hub to the router. It uses dial up networking for the actual connection of course. However it can't seem to get this together, at least I haven't figured out how to do it.

What I tried: a simple port forwarding manouver didn't work. Just install everything and doing a hail mary over it didn't work. I am looking at the other network options in VB, but frankly they don't seem aimed at my needs, although they might do the job, it just isn't clear to me..

The result I would love: running the virtual windows as an internet server for my Ubuntu host so I could go online with ubuntu and keep it updated.

The result I would settle for: running the virtual windoze as my internet connection.

If you would like I can send you the script and its attached "net_sf" file (which has to be insertted in the system 32 file for unknown reasons.

One other caveat here: this script is not stable. It causes constant problems with this windows install on my daughter's computer (2 reformats and 2 restores in 6 weeks) so if you want this piece of junk then don't use it in a good machine. I am guessing that there might be issues that I don't know about, but the windows install was clean.

I hope this makes things more clear, I am willing to do quite a bit to make this work.

And thanks, of course

:?
as in the past, the future is in eggs
Ingo
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Joined: 22. Aug 2007, 10:13
Location: Germany

Post by Ingo »

Whow... that sounds complicated.
Just a short feedback. I hope I can help you because I haven't that environment. One idea is to make your host as transparent as possible so that the other side of the pppoe connection only see your Windows guest. But it's late for me, will come back tomorrow.
nobodie
Posts: 51
Joined: 20. May 2007, 11:46
Primary OS: Fedora other
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Post by nobodie »

Thanks for even offering to help, I know this is tricky, but I think that virtualization might provide the leverage to get around this windoze silliness.

The thing that has me ticked is that the entire faculty of hundreds of professionals (of course including and entire IT faculty and staff) just lay down and give up when someone says: "you must do it in Windows"

I'll be checking in through the weekend. Thanks again
as in the past, the future is in eggs
nobodie
Posts: 51
Joined: 20. May 2007, 11:46
Primary OS: Fedora other
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update and bump

Post by nobodie »

Here is an update that may be of some interest:

Last night, because of all the trouble with my daughter's dual boot, i ran the mem test all night. Of course it didn't return any problems, but this morning, when that computer was still tied up doing the mem test I noticed that my computer had an update notification in the taskbar. HUH?

Well after quite a bit of this and that the damn thing actually started to update. Imagine my confusion.

I was runnning the PPPoe script (Amtium) in VB, running Roarin Penguin and wireshark in Linux and generally checking the network (through network admin gui) connection all at the same time.

Then it dropped, why I don't know. Of course I don't know why it picked up in the first place either so there we are.

Then one thing I noted was that when it was running, the AVAHI interface showed as a network connection along with eth0 and ppp0, ppp1 and localhost. When it dropped the AVAHI interface also disappeared.

Now, I admit that I haven't a clue why the Avahi came or why it went. Somewhere I read a description of what it is but I forget all that and really know nothing about it.

I have noticed that occasionally, for unknown reasons, I get avahi listed with the other interfaces, but have never understood why and thought (obviously incorrectly) that it was not a good thing.

So, the mem test finally bored me to tears and i shut it off and restarted in windoze and went to connect to the internet. No go. HUH? it was doing pretty good last night. So, pondering, I went and shut down my computer, because the message was that I was not being accepted on the network, which is a specific message that I seldom see.

Return to my daughter's box, click the adsl shortcut for the connection and ....bingo, online.

so, i am apparently connected enough with my computer to cut her off, (even though we have different usernames I was told that the username didn't matter, that we could type in anything for the username once the Amtium script had run. So, apparently my in-house hub is being registered as the connection, not the individual box, just a guess anyway, probably mistaken:) So, does any of this make any sense to you or help in any way? I'm gonna try to study up on avahi, since that seems interesting, but I'm also gonna raise sand with the ISP cause I need two connections not just one.

Ledt me know if Avahi fits in to your comment about transparency... maybe they fit somehow???

thanks
as in the past, the future is in eggs
Ingo
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Location: Germany

Post by Ingo »

OK, first let's look for a more general solution. Maybe we haven't to look at the details. We will do it if this does not work.

The AVAHI interface is a configuration described in RFC 3927 with what you can configure a small network automatically without a dhcp-server. The network interface cards negotiate a free ip-address from the reserved range 169.254.*. This normally doesn't interferes with other network setups but in this case I would suggest to disable it for clarification. You can do it temporary with:

Code: Select all

/etc/init.d/avahi-daemon stop
Now you can make your Ubuntu host completely transparent for the Window$ VM to the external network. Follow the instructions for installing a bridge in the VirtualBox User Manual page 60 ff. After setting up this you should be able to ping the Window$ guest from your daughters PC. Booting your daughters PC into Window$ you should also be able to connect to a share on the guest and vice versa. If this works then it should be only one step to establish a pppoe connection from within the guest to the world. The bridge on your Ubuntu host has normaly filters set to some protocols that will block it. You can show its settings with:

Code: Select all

$ ls /proc/sys/net/bridge/
bridge-nf-call-arptables
bridge-nf-call-ip6tables
bridge-nf-call-iptables
bridge-nf-filter-pppoe-tagged
bridge-nf-filter-vlan-tagged
$
$ cat /proc/sys/net/bridge/bridge-nf-*
1
1
1
1
1
$
If this shows 1 then the filter is enabled. Disable your filter with setting it to zero:

Code: Select all

$ sudo bash -c "echo 0 >/proc/sys/net/bridge/bridge-nf-filter-pppoe-tagged"
$
That should do the thing. As a precaution you can disable all filters:

Code: Select all

$ for f in /proc/sys/net/bridge/bridge-nf-*; do sudo bash -c "echo 0 > $f"; done
$
Tell me if it works.
nobodie
Posts: 51
Joined: 20. May 2007, 11:46
Primary OS: Fedora other
VBox Version: PUEL
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Location: Suzhou,Jiangsu, China
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Post by nobodie »

Sorry to take so long getting back to you, Monday is an extra full work day (six straight teaching hours) and I came down with a cold Monday around lunch and was ill all night. Finally got around to getting the bridge together tonight. It worked!!!!

Yes I am happy, the bridge alone has given me access to the internet with the Virtual copy of windows in VB. You have achieved the first level of godhood.

Now, I'm going to try the next step that you had in your post which I am hoping you hoped would give me internet access with firefox in ubuntu. I'll make a bak of any changes since this is working right now.

Whatever the result I will post again and see where we are, but I can't say enough right now that Virtual Box rules in my house!

And thanks Ingo!
as in the past, the future is in eggs
nobodie
Posts: 51
Joined: 20. May 2007, 11:46
Primary OS: Fedora other
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Post by nobodie »

the ls only returned four things: arptable, iptables.ip6tables and vlan, not teh pppoe. so I used the default "0 all" command you also listed which seemed to make no difference. I have internet through Virtual Box Windows, but not through ubuntu.

But this is not a complaint of course.

But then, do you think we can do it? use the VB windows to act as a (whatever you would call it, a server, a proxy a tin man, whatever) to let me acces the internet with firefox in ubuntu?

I'll await your answer, but while I wait I'll do my email from my computer. For teh first time in months.

Thanks
as in the past, the future is in eggs
nobodie
Posts: 51
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Post by nobodie »

one other thing i notice is that i am getting a 10Mps connection in VB, but a 100 Mps connection with the dual boot/ Windoze box. Not a complaint since the internet speed is pretty miserable, but who knows what is important.

thanks
as in the past, the future is in eggs
Ingo
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Joined: 22. Aug 2007, 10:13
Location: Germany

Post by Ingo »

nobodie wrote:I have internet through Virtual Box Windows, but not through ubuntu.

But this is not a complaint of course.

But then, do you think we can do it? use the VB windows to act as a (whatever you would call it, a server, a proxy a tin man, whatever) to let me acces the internet with firefox in ubuntu?
The best way is to let ubuntu make its own pppoe connection. Then we not even need this hack with the windows script. But if we only can use this, we have to told Windows to act as a router (or proxy? or tin man?). I remember I've seen this configuration possibility anywhere in the Windows menus but I can't figure it out because I haven't a Windows with two interfaces. I only run Windows in virtual boxes. I'm afraid you are alone here. But it should work because your virtual Windows box appears as a normal client on your LAN.
nobodie wrote:one other thing i notice is that i am getting a 10Mps connection in VB, but a 100 Mps connection with the dual boot/ Windoze box.
With the new VirtualBox Version 1.5.2 this bug is fixed. You will get a 100Mps connection within your VB. But wait a little bit with upgrading. I have some problems with NAT in the new version, and you know...
never change a running system!
nobodie
Posts: 51
Joined: 20. May 2007, 11:46
Primary OS: Fedora other
VBox Version: PUEL
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Post by nobodie »

updates:
I replaced the filter "0"s with "1"s because it seemed to make no difference.

I was thinking hard about upping to Ubuntu7.10 and VB1.5 by dragging the box over to my office and hooking in to the Lan network there that doesn't have this silly pppoe problem. If I do and I create problems for myself i'll write back for help with that. This isn't a production machine, only my house machine that my wife and I use for internet and my silly hobby projects, like this one. (not to say that this is a silly hobby or anything, just that i have no fear of crashing this system since it won't affect my work or my daughter's school or my wife's work or anything else of importance)

I will try to think of how to do a connection with Ubuntu, using the virtual windows as a router or server or proxy or whatever, but this is not something i know a lot about. Still, it will be fun. I'll update you with questions about specifics and details of my various failures.

thanks for everything!!!
as in the past, the future is in eggs
Dieter Manstein
Posts: 19
Joined: 30. Oct 2007, 03:35

Winxp Internet Connection Sharing

Post by Dieter Manstein »

Ingo wrote: I remember I've seen this configuration possibility anywhere in the Windows menus but I can't figure it out because I haven't a Windows with two interfaces. I only run Windows in virtual boxes. I'm afraid you are alone here. But it should work because your virtual Windows box appears as a normal client on your LAN.
Windows XP can act as a gateway with what Redmont names: "Internet Connection Sharing". Were you thinking about this?
nobodie
Posts: 51
Joined: 20. May 2007, 11:46
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Post by nobodie »

Two things:
first, I just upped to Ubuntu7.10 and to VB1.5.2. Interestingly, after my usual thrashing and bashing about everything is running ok, except that while I can get a connection to the internet, according to the windows interfaces, i don't get online. I'm going to check the filter thing again and see if that is it, that would make sense anyway. i'll let you know.

second thing, Dieter's idea about ICS in windows. I tried it with my daughter's dual boot and the problem was that the router location is static and set to the ICS IP address (192.168.0.1) i got an error message that said that because another sys function was using that address then i couldn't do ICS. I would bet that there is a work around for this, but i haven't followed up on it.

I've been busy and haven't really been able to mess around again,l but now I am caught up and can fuss with it. Plus a friend of mine in Beijing just called and said I should quit fussing with this and get a real paid connection cause he is getting real high speed internet much better than we were getting in Thailand. And its cheap. so maybe i'll fix this first, just to prove it, and then move on.
as in the past, the future is in eggs
Dieter Manstein
Posts: 19
Joined: 30. Oct 2007, 03:35

Post by Dieter Manstein »

nobodie wrote:Two things:
first, I just upped to Ubuntu7.10 and to VB1.5.2. Interestingly, after my usual thrashing and bashing about everything is running ok, except that while I can get a connection to the internet, according to the windows interfaces, i don't get online. I'm going to check the filter thing again and see if that is it, that would make sense anyway. i'll let you know.

second thing, Dieter's idea about ICS in windows. I tried it with my daughter's dual boot and the problem was that the router location is static and set to the ICS IP address (192.168.0.1) i got an error message that said that because another sys function was using that address then i couldn't do ICS. I would bet that there is a work around for this, but i haven't followed up on it.

I've been busy and haven't really been able to mess around again,l but now I am caught up and can fuss with it. Plus a friend of mine in Beijing just called and said I should quit fussing with this and get a real paid connection cause he is getting real high speed internet much better than we were getting in Thailand. And its cheap. so maybe i'll fix this first, just to prove it, and then move on.
I almost wrote about that restriction, but didn't because I had a vague memory of changing the mandatory IP, putting another static address and not having any trouble. But I'm not sure. Sorry.

ps.: Before anything, see if the service "Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)" is running and set to automatic, in the case you try to change that static address and experiment with ICS. Good luck!
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