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Trying to get a net connection running in my vbox. its showing my vm1 external as unplugged. when i click on it in network connections its showing up as enabled. not sure what to do.

velma,
Could you explain this a little better for me? I am not sure what to tell you to do. Please give as much information as you can. Remember we are not there with you and can not see what you are seeing. You need to explain this like you are talking to a blind person.

ok. i have win2k running as my guest os. i'm trying to get the guest os to connect to the internet.

in my network connections window on the xp box i see the network bridge, and vm1 external icon. theres also msn, local area connection, and 1394 connection, but i dont believe i have to deal with those.

in my system tray.. bottom right corner of xp box it shows the vm1external icon and network brtidge icon. both say .. unplugged.

so back to the network connections window on xp... clicking on the network bridge propertieshows nothing in general , whikch states ..select the adaptters you want to use to connect the computers on your local network. For the vm1 external properties i designated an ip address

for the win2k os I have tcp/ip set to obtain ip automatically.

OK we are getting there now. Which version of VirtualBox are you using? I more than likely will not be able to respond any more tonight as I need to get some sleep but will check back tomorrow morning.

version 1.5.6

That is really an old version of VBox. Have you considered upgrading? Anyway there are a few places that you can check to see what the problem is. I am trying to do this by memory because I do not have that version any more.

First open the VBox gui and under the network section make sure that you have a check mark in the network connected box, and that you have selected HIF (host-Interface network connection) selected, and that you have selected your network adapter in the bottom window.
Secondly you need to setup the windows side. Go here for instructions how Windows Bridged Network. Note that you will be selection the VBox adapter and the PC's main connection for the bridge instead of what the tutorial states. After this you should be set to go.

Thanks. I got it.

If I upgrade virtualbox, will I have to reinstall my guest operating system?

No you should not need to re-install the guest, but you need to make sure that you do a few things first:

• Snapshots may not make it through the update due to the age of your version
• You must shutdown the guest and not leave them in a saved state.
• You must close down the VBox program.
• Since this is such a major upgrade you will need to uninstall the version you have now and then install the new version.

Your guests and the VBox control files should make it through in tack and be picked up by VBox on the new install. Once the install is complete you will need to install the guest additions on each guest.

There is another thing you need to check for your Windows Guests. Version 1.5.6 uses PIIX3 IDE controller type, as where newer versions use PIIX4. Windows will BSOD on this setting if it's not what it's installed on. So check in the VM settings, General, tab Advanced, if it actually says PIIX3. You will find it out soon enough if it crashes upon boot .