VirtualBox 3.0: Problems with bridged network connection

[Perryg]

Also you may want to see this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301
It will remove all the tags so you can install the drivers that may not be getting installed.

[J2R]

Don't know whether this problem is related but it might be...I have an Ubuntu guest running under a Vista host with VB 3.0.4, and until recently I was using NAT which worked perfectly. I needed to access a server application on the guest so I switched to bridged networking (bridging the wireless adapter). I was delighted how much easier this was than it used to be, and it worked perfectly in the guest (after switching to the Intel PRO/1000 T Server). However, the Vista host lost its network connection, even though the guest worked fine. By closing down the VM, restarting VB and then starting the VM, I was able to get both working at the same time. But the same problem occurs whenever the laptop wakes from sleep mode - my host networking is down, while the guest works fine. Any ideas what the issue might be?

[Perryg]

@J2R,
Your problem sounds different. Is the Wireless Adapter a USB plug-in device?

[J2R]

@J2R,
Your problem sounds different. Is the Wireless Adapter a USB plug-in device?

No, it's built in.

[Perryg]

I suspect that it has to do with your sleep mode. When it comes back on the network connections are out of sync.
I know that screen savers and power settings in a guest will effect the guest when they hibernate. It may be that this is also effecting the host. Hard to say.

[J2R]

I suspect that it has to do with your sleep mode. When it comes back on the network connections are out of sync.
I know that screen savers and power settings in a guest will effect the guest when they hibernate. It may be that this is also effecting the host. Hard to say.

When you say they're out of sync, do you mean that the guest gets the connection first, which it shouldn't? And is there a way around this?

[Perryg]

When you say they're out of sync, do you mean that the guest gets the connection first, which it shouldn't? And is there a way around this?

I have seen stranger things happen then this, but I don't know of any work around. You are free to post a ticket in bugtracker if you like though. Link is at he bottom of my post. I don't use sleep mode, screen savers, or power management in my guest because I have seen them cause a lot of problems.

[J2R]

Just to be clear, it's sleep mode of the host I'm talking about. I'm not using any sleep mode or hibernation in the Ubuntu guest.

[Perryg]

Drop this in Google. hibernate site:virtualbox.org Look for the ones from bugtracker
You can read some of the tickets that have been created and if you find one that resembles your add yourself to the ticket. If not start a new one.
I do know this has been an issue so there must be one there already. You will need to setup an account there though because it is on a different system.

[rjchapma]

re:

Also you may want to see this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301
It will remove all the tags so you can install the drivers that may not be getting installed.

Tried microsoft uninstaller as well as revo uninstaller and problem persists. During uninstalls I have rebooted and manually removed the .virtualbox directory under c:\dccuments and settings.

[Perryg]

Try this.

• uninstall virtualbox
• restart the machine
• re-install virtualbox
• restart the machine
• Setup the Virtual Network Adapter

Also was this an upgrade or a new install?
Upgrade problem repair:

• a Reinstall version 2.2.0 and select repair. (DO NOT reboot)
  b Run the version 2.2.0 install again and tell it to uninstall (DO NOT reboot)
  c Run the new Version 3.0.0 install and see if it works (This time reboot)

Substitute the install version with the one you had that worked.

[strangeelement]

At this point sacrificing a chicken seems almost appropriate as well...

Bridged connection seems a bit problematic it seems. Have you tried with host-only connection? It has been my only successful configuration so far and my problems were usually more present with bridged connection. I don't quite remember if host-only had the driver error as well as bridged but it's worth a try.

I detailed my setup here: http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=21907.

Oh and just taking a chance, would you have a recent enough system restore point that could save the day? We sometimes forget about those...

[rjchapma]

Seems like someone sacrificed a chicken for me as the bridged networking connections now seems to work.

Here are the steps the led up to the problem and steps that I think resolved the problem.

Host OS WinXP SP3 (32bit, dual homed, VMWare Player installed), guest OS RHEL v5 (64bit).

- installed vbox 3.0.4 (fresh install, not an upgrade from prior versions)
- NAT was working with guest OS, guest OS could see the internet
- tried to bridge connections and couldn't select any network adapter (I think the drop down was grayed out)
- I uninstalled VMWare Player, VBox and rebooted. Reinstalled Vbox.
- NAT worked fine. When tried to bridge connections I could now see my local adapter, however when vbox started, it reported errors immediately (see previous post).
- tried numerous uninstalls and reinstalls, still didn't work
- tried using Microsoft uninstaller, reboot, reinstall, still didn't work
- tried using revo uninstaller, reboot, reinstall, still didn't work
- used revo uninstaller, reboot, downloaded vbox 3.0.6 beta from http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/3.0.6_BETA1/ and installed. Crashed whenever trying to boot guest OS (however didn't have error reported above). Tried all virtual network adapters, still didn't work.
- uninstalled 3.0.6 beta, reboot and reinstalled 3.0.4 and suddenly it works.

My suspicion is that the 3.0.6 removed some lingering registry entries and cleaned it up. Since 3.0.6 is a beta, it could be dangerous to recommend this as a solution.

I then went to a coworker’s computer and the 3.0.4 install with bridged networking worked right away without any of the grief that I had. Speculation is that either my network card/driver combo is what caused my grief or it was the clash between vbox and VMWare player and an uninstaller bug.

[666f6f]

I would like to share my own experience for others to benefit and my own reference.

Host is Windows XP always, and guest is either Windows 2003 or Debian

== VMWare 4.5.3 OR VirtualBox 2.2.4 + bridged adapter to my wireless interface + Thomson OR FritzBox! router
# Guest is not even assigned an IP address

I though I should give VB 3.0.6 a try so I installed and retried with no reboot in between, I got the following result..:

== VirtualBox 3.0.6 + bridged adapter to my wireless interface (bcm43xx wireless chip) + Thomson (some model) OR FritzBox! 7140 (I think) router
# Host can ping guest
# Guest is assigned (through DHCP) an IP address
# Guest can ping host
# Guest can't ping internet nor open google (e.g. telnet http://www.google.com 80)

I thought maybe I should have rebooted the system in the first place so.. I uninstalled VB 3.0.6 > reboot > installed VB 3.0.6 > reboot and made no difference as I originally expected.

== VirtualBox 3.0.6 + bridged adapter to my wired interface + Thomson OR FritzBox! router
# Works

== VMWare 4.5.3 + bridged adapter to my wired interface + Thomson OR FritzBox! router
# Works

Note: VMWare 4.5.3 is a little old I know, but it's tiny, around 40MB. I didn't want to install 6, it's about 600MB for some reason.. So in 6 bridging the wireless adapter might work.

Note: I didn't try all the various uninstall/install combinations, it seemed too much time to waste.

[henrik242]

I have this problem as well. The network connection works well for awhile, then becomes extremely slow or just stops working completely.

I use VirtualBox 3.0.6 on a MacOSX 10.6 host and a Debian Linux guest.