help with host interface networking

[rkleemann]

Hi,

I'm running 2.0.6 on a linux host (Ubuntu 8.0.4)

I installed a Windows 2003 server guest, and had issues with hostif networking so I just resorted to doing NAT from the host to the guest.

This seems to be working ok, however I'd really like to get hostif working between the linux host and the win2k3 guest.

One thing I can't explain is that there seems to be some network issues that I don't see any reason for and don't know how to debug.

I'm running a Flash Media Server on the guest, and all seems fine in windows. The cpu load is very light (5-10%), the network load on the guest is light, everything seems fine. However, the network traffic to a client connecting to FMS is quite unstable. It will freeze up quite frequently.

The host in general is reasonably idle, there are no other problems I can find. I am running several linux guests and don't notice any issues there either.

But definitely there is a network problem with the win2k3 guest, and I'm wondering if I change from NAT to hostif it'll make any difference.

[Perryg]

Have you tried to change the adapter type to a different one? I can't remember exactly what it had back then but if you can see if it has an Intel adapter it might work better in the Win Server. You may need to be sure you have drivers though I am not sure they came with Windows. Also HIF is better IMHO but you will need to setup the bridge in the Host. See this: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Netwo ... tionBridge
Or here: http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-set-up ... buntu.html

[rkleemann]

Have you tried to change the adapter type to a different one? I can't remember exactly what it had back then but if you can see if it has an Intel adapter it might work better in the Win Server. You may need to be sure you have drivers though I am not sure they came with Windows. Also HIF is better IMHO but you will need to setup the bridge in the Host. See this: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Netwo ... tionBridge
Or here: http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-set-up ... buntu.html

Thanks for the tip.

I already have bridge setup on the host. I'm running 7 other guests (all linux) and the bridge works fine. And when I installed the win2k3 guest, I assumed I could simply assign a static IP within the windows networking and the bridge would work normally as it does for the linux guests, but that wasn't working.

So I must have something not configured right within the windows guest.

[rkleemann]

some more info, in my linux guests I set up static ip networking.

I use the host's IP as the gateway, and I assign a static ip in the same network for the guest.

It works quite well.

But when I tried the same in the windows guest it didn't work. I couldn't communicate between host/guest, the guest couldn't get out to the internet... so I had to resort to doing NAT in order for the windows guest to work.

[Perryg]

Windows networking is not that much different than your Linux except the places you set it up and the CLI command to see what it is. If you set it up for static and give it the address, subnet mask, gateway and DNS it should work just fine. Some things to check are firewall, and DNS. That's about the only thing that I have found to cause Win to not work properly. From the command window type ipconfig /all and see what it says. Also nslookup will tell you if it sees your dns server or what you have for DNS. But if it is DNS you should be able to ping the address and not the name. Try pinging yahoo.com and then 209.131.36.159 and see what you get.

[rkleemann]

Windows networking is not that much different than your Linux except the places you set it up and the CLI command to see what it is. If you set it up for static and give it the address, subnet mask, gateway and DNS it should work just fine. Some things to check are firewall, and DNS. That's about the only thing that I have found to cause Win to not work properly. From the command window type ipconfig /all and see what it says. Also nslookup will tell you if it sees your dns server or what you have for DNS. But if it is DNS you should be able to ping the address and not the name. Try pinging yahoo.com and then 209.131.36.159 and see what you get.

Thanks. I understand, the problem is when I setup the static IP in windows (just the same as I do for the linux guests) it simply wasn't working (like not able to get out to the net).

It's not firewall because as soon as I reverted back to NAT and dhcp for windows, it started working.

That's why it seems strange to me. I assume that on the host side everything is the same as for the linux guests, correct?

[rkleemann]

I just tried it again and it's simply not working.

From the host showvminfo:
NIC 1: MAC: 0800279DA832, Attachment: Host Interface 'vbox8', Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: Am79C973, Reported speed: 0 Mbps

(this is the same as I have for all the other guests)

From the windows server ipconfig:
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : AMD PCNET Family PCI Ethernet Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 08-00-27-9D-A8-32
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.208
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.200
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

The linux host is 192.168.1.200. The above config is what I have for all the linux guests. However I cannot ping from the windows guest, nor from the linux host. The bridge doesn't seem to be working for the windows guest, although the bridges work fine for the linux guests.

On the windows guest I see packets sent, but they never return.

I'm not sure what else to look at for the windows guest.

On the host side I do see that packets are being dropped on that interface, and I don't know why.

$ ifconfig vbox8
vbox8 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:ff:fe:74:75:37
inet6 addr: fe80::2ff:feff:fe74:7537/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:331 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:3 errors:0 dropped:609983 overruns:2 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:500
RX bytes:43872 (42.8 KB) TX bytes:126 (126.0 B)

[Perryg]

Is the 192.168.1.1 your router address?
If so point the gateway there and see what happens.

[rkleemann]

Is the 192.168.1.1 your router address?
If so point the gateway there and see what happens.

That's the firewall address, but the real gateway is the host (192.168.1.200).

I tried changing but no difference. I can't ping 192.168.1.1 nor 192.168.1.200

windows simply doesn't like the hostif setup, I don't know what the deal is. With the linux guests it works right out of the box.

[Perryg]

I don't know what to tell you at this point. I know I could get it to work if I were touching it but via long distance is another thing. I will think about it some more but it looks like you have tried everything that needs to be tried. I bet when you do find it though it will be something so ridiculous it will be a head slapper.

[rkleemann]

I don't know what to tell you at this point. I know I could get it to work if I were touching it but via long distance is another thing. I will think about it some more but it looks like you have tried everything that needs to be tried. I bet when you do find it though it will be something so ridiculous it will be a head slapper.

Very strange. I guess it's something either with the hostif itself or the particular bridge if. I changed the hostifdev for the guest to another one and suddenly it started working. So I don't know what's wrong with the original one I was attempting.

Go figure... slap!

[Sasquatch]

Very strange. I guess it's something either with the hostif itself or the particular bridge if. I changed the hostifdev for the guest to another one and suddenly it started working. So I don't know what's wrong with the original one I was attempting.

Go figure... slap!

Ehm, selected a HostIF that wasn't physically connected? That won't work, as the interface is down when no cable is connected .