virtualbox.org

Hello All,
A newbie question I'm afraid! I have a Virtual XP SP3 running inside Vista.

Does the virtual machine need its own firewall and anti virus software to make it safe or does it communicate to the internet via the host firewall and antivirus software? I noticed in the VBox manual that anti virus software can upset the VM, and this has proven to be the case for me so I removed it.

There is a lower chance for you to get infected because of the NAT network you use by default (easiest setup for internet). There is a topic about the whole security thing in the Using VB topic (talks about virii that can get out of your VM). It's always recommended to have some security programs, no matter where it runs in/on.
For antivirus, you can use AVG Free. Works like a charm on my XP VMs.

Thanks,

I have Kapersky running on the host and I've disable the NAT on the guest for now. When I ran kapersky on there it messed the OS pretty badly. The virtual machine display messed up but the controls said the OS was still running. I had no way of recovery though. Removing it seemed to help fine.

I'll read the topic...thanks

Hi ,

Kaspersky does not have too much affinity with VirtualBox, he preferred VMware.
... damage ...

Best regards .

Yo will find several threads with Kaspersky not running. In my Windows Guests works Antivir: www.free-av.de.

LOL ! ... except that Antivir, bof, bof ...
http://www.vmware.com/ # skipGeoRedirect