Unable to access shared XP Guest files on Vista Host OS

[BradS]

Host OS is Vista 64, Guest OS is Win XP 32. Created a shared folder on my Vista Desktop. Set up folder sharing in VirtualBox 3.0.2. Although I can access and manipulate any shared files from my shared folder residing on the Vista Host from within my Win XP Guest OS, I can't do the reverse. In other words, if I put any files in my Win XP Guest shared folder, I am unable to access or even see that file when I open the shared folder on my Vista Host OS. It appears that I have created "one way sharing" from Host to Guest only. I'd like to be able to share Guest to Host as well. Any ideas on what I have done wrong or need to do?

[Perryg]

Brads,
You have done well by setting up the shared folder using Vbox folder share, but to get what you want you will need to setup a network share.
Things that affect this are IP address scheme, workgroup, firewall, network settings and permissions.
Usually not something that most users are able to do unless they are using bridged mode, which requires a router, or use (2) network adapters and set one to use host-only.
Unfortunately this falls outside of the scope of the VBox forum, but I know you can google this and find a howto. Just remember that you need to think of this as (2) computers instead of one.

[Sasquatch]

Check the manual, the Shared Folder functionality is one way only. Put files from the Guest onto the shared folder will save the files on the Host. You can't access the files inside the VM from the Host, unless you use normal network shares. In order to get that working, you have to know some basic networking (how to connect to a different computer over the network). When you know that (it's not that hard, about the same as using Shared Folders), you need to change some settings for the network that is used for the VM. You can only have two way communications if you use Bridged or Host-Only. If it's only going to be Host <> Guest, then Host-Only is just fine and a bit easier and fail-proof. If you need to access the VM from the whole network, you need bridged.

[BradS]

Thanks to all. I apparently did not understand that one way sharing was normal when reading the manual. I was simply hoping to avoid the extra work of setting up network sharing as it is sometimes a pain! Thanks again.