Bridged Wifi does not work in Guest

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
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marianB
Posts: 2
Joined: 16. Mar 2018, 17:03

Bridged Wifi does not work in Guest

Post by marianB »

Hi All
I have a setup with 2 simult connections: 1 is on wired LAN, the 2nd is working via WIFI. Both interfaces have IPs and gateways assigned in Host OS (windows 10)
I'm trying to bridge the wifi interface to the guest os, but this is not working since in the guest os the interface is not getting an IP. It is not receiving any packet.
Bridging the wired connection works just fine

Code: Select all

PS C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox> .\VBoxManage.exe list bridgedifs
Name:            Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260
GUID:            6039ad31-c504-4619-8635-a7f6fcecc1f1
DHCP:            Enabled
IPAddress:       10.23.xxx.xxx
NetworkMask:     255.255.128.0
IPV6Address:     fe80:0000:0000:0000:xxxca4e:xxxxe:xxxxx
IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 64
HardwareAddress: e4:a4:71:xx:xx:xx
MediumType:      Ethernet
Status:          Up
VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260


I've tried with 5.2.8 or 5.1.34 with the same behavior. Is there some magic for this?
Last edited by marianB on 20. Mar 2018, 16:40, edited 1 time in total.
socratis
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Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Bridget Wifi does not work in Guest

Post by socratis »

marianB wrote: Is there some magic for this?
Maybe changing your WiFi card, or your router, or both. That might help...

Bridged and wireless don't always play nice. Bridged networking is outside the WLAN specification. Bridging to wireless is not really bridging. The guest shares the MAC of the host and the host does a sort of MAC-NAT translation based on IP addresses. 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.
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marianB
Posts: 2
Joined: 16. Mar 2018, 17:03

Re: Bridget Wifi does not work in Guest

Post by marianB »

Hi Socratis
Thanks for feedback.
I cannot change the router, since it's not under my control and I also cannot change the wireless adapter, without a clear specification about what is working and what is not ok.
I'm reading that there are many complains about this, so I guess it needs to be addressed in the Virtual BOX code.
BillG
Volunteer
Posts: 5102
Joined: 19. Sep 2009, 04:44
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows 10,7 and earlier
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Bridged Wifi does not work in Guest

Post by BillG »

The problem is not in the VirtualBox code. It works perfectly well in most systems. I have never had one fail. Even my cheap Tenda USB adapter does bridged mode. The problem is in the wifi driver software, which is written by the wifi device manufacturer. You will see a similar problem with some ethernet card drivers.

Bridged networking needs the device driver and the VirtualBox filter driver to work together to allow the host and guest(s) to share the device. If the device driver does not adhere to the standards, bridged networking fails.
Bill
Martin
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Posts: 2560
Joined: 30. May 2007, 18:05
Primary OS: Fedora other
VBox Version: PUEL
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Re: Bridged Wifi does not work in Guest

Post by Martin »

BillG wrote: If the device driver does not adhere to the standards, bridged networking fails.
The problem appears when a driver or network device adheres strictly to the WLAN standard. The standard doesn't allow multiple devices sharing a client link. Virtualbox has implemented a workaround, but this doesn't always work.
Many WLAN device vendors have chosen not to implement that part the official standard as it is written, therefore many device combinations out there work.
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