virtualbox.org

Hi...

I use VM's to isolate environments for customers I do development for. In the WinXP VM's I would like to use the PPTP VPN connectivity, as I can with a WinXP host system and as I can with MS Virtual PC VM's.

It seems that this facility does not work properly in a WinXP VM within VirtualBox. Snooping around the forums, one person mentioned that this same type of condition occurred when VMWare Workstation was first out. (Something to do with not properly handling GRE packets) Hopefully you will extend VirtualBox to better support PPTP connections across all guest OS's.

I will reiterate however, that this is an outstanding product. Thank you for what you've built.

Totally agree with bzamora, virtualbox is great, thanks Innotek for all your effort.

If it possible I would appreciate if someone from Innotek could give some kind of statement regarding a implementation of PPTP/GRE.

Will it be implemented?
Approximately when?

Thank again for a great product.

One more vote for PPTP/GRE

another vote for PPTP/GRE

Moi aussi! Viva la PPTP!

Not even in 1.6.0 have they manage to fix this pptp / gre issue.

Does anyone know if/when such support is planned? Plz, give me a timeframe, I am seriously thinking of switching to other virtualizations solutions.
This is actually a very important feature for professional use!

The funny thing is that pptp used to work back in the days of 1.4.x.

(I haven't tried the OSE version, anyone know if that works?)

Another vote for PPTP support. Very frustrating without it.

It doesn't work on OSE btw.

Guys, I was totally going to change to VMware when I couldn't get VPN access to work on a VBox windows guest, but with a little voice inside said no (and when I looked at the 105mb file download for VMware, compared to the 20+mbs for Vbox, I was like, "I can't go out like this!..")

Here is how I did it. This setup for me created a semi permanent solution, you'll see what I mean later on:

Before I begin, I want to go through the process that got me the solution. When I first installed virtualbox, I followed the instructions here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Virtu ... 9de1143a03 under networking, to setup Host Interface Networking. When I did this, I was able to login to my VPN (checkpoint) on the windows xp guest. However, when I restarted, all the config went bye bye, so I turned to manual to see if there was a permanent way.

I followed the steps in the manual for a permanent connection, but that caused my internet not to work on the guest and the host. So what I did, is followed the steps described in the link above, but took steps to make those steps permanent.

1. Edit your /etc/network/interfaces file as root (what I do is alt+f2, then type gksu gedit. Once it's up I browse to the folder, and open interfaces) to look like this:

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
up ifconfig $IFACE 0.0.0.0 up
up ip link set $IFACE promisc on
down ip link set $IFACE promisc off
down ifconfig $IFACE down

auto br0
iface br0 inet dhcp
bridge_ports eth0 vbox0

you will notice that I enable promiscuous mode on my primary eth0 int. This will ensure that all traffic passed on the bridge is accessible by my primary int. I then create the bridge, set it to dhcp, and add ports eth0, and vbox0 to the bridge.

2. Create vbox0 (or vbox(and any number). Type this in the command prompt: sudo VBoxAddIF vbox0 <username>, where the username is the user who has rights to the interface. This will probably be the username you use to log in to ubuntu.

3. Add this line to your /etc/vbox/interfaces file:

vbox0 wilsdx [br0]

This will add the interface you created to the br0 bridge. You might only need to add the "[br0] part, as the previous command will add the interface and your username.

4. Restart your network interfaces:

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

5. Create an interface in Vbox settings (GUI). Choose "host interface" and type vbox0 as the interfaces name.

6. Load and test.

There you go, I am at work now and have my VPN running. Post back if you have questions. SAY NO TO VMware, Virtualbox is awesome, and it was just purchased by Sun, so it's going to get awesome..err., lol.

--Knowisdom

you have to run:

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

from the terminal before you log on to the virtual guest (only after restarts/shutdowns). I did this all last night (for work today, lol) so I haven't tested another way. Apparently the vbox0 interface doesn't grab a dhcp address if you don't. I'll continue to work at this, to see if there is a perm solution.

Don't believe anyone when they say VPN access isn't enabled on Vbox. It is..

--Knowisdom

knowisdom wrote: Don't believe anyone when they say VPN access isn't enabled on Vbox. It is..

--Knowisdom

Great! Now, what if my host machine is OS X? I have a Windows guest instance I need to use PPTP on. Alternately I could have the host connect to the PPTP if I can get to it with the guest somehow. Thoughts?

just another vote for PPTP on WinXP on Mac OSX host, my VPN is just timeouts when trying to get authorized.

I also vote for beter pptp support, because bridging won't properly work on wireless

Another vote for adding PTPP/GRE support to NAT networking. For me on a Vista x64 host, bridging interfaces works, but it makes my network unstable. Connection starts dropping every few minutes.

pptp/gre works fine for me on linux host (win2003 guest) with bridged networking.

Can anyone advise how to do this on VirtualBox 4.0.4??

In the network settings for my guest I selected Bridged, and I can now connect to the VPN, get an IP address and DNS but...I can't connect to any web apps, or the Oracle database I need to hit.

Help???

Thanks!

knowisdom wrote: 2. Create vbox0 (or vbox(and any number). Type this in the command prompt: sudo VBoxAddIF vbox0 <username>, where the username is the user who has rights to the interface. This will probably be the username you use to log in to ubuntu.

3. Add this line to your /etc/vbox/interfaces file:

vbox0 wilsdx [br0]


--Knowisdom