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I just upgraded from 3.0.2 (worked fine) to 3.0.4. The newest Bridged networking driver (which attaches to the host's network connection) has completely broken network connectivity on my machine (Windows 7 RC x64).

If I uncheck the bridge driver/service on the NIC properties, everything works, but whenever I have it enabled I get no networking on the host.

Has anyone else seen this? Should I try a complete uninstall of 3.0.4 and reinstall? I've rebooted the host and that didn't help. I have also uninstalled the service from the network device, and then reinstalled by navigating to C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox\drivers\network\netflt and picking the INF file there to install from the network device properties page. This didn't work either.

I had this same problem when I upgraded to 3.0.4 today on a Windows 7 64bit host.

The Bridge Adapter seems to work if you change the adapter type from the default PC-net fast III adapter to one of the Intel Adapters. I got connectivity back when I switched to the Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop adapter. This was with a linux guest.

For me the host's networking stack is completely broken any time the bridge adapter is checked/enabled on my main network connection. I don't even have to have any guests running or have the VBox system up at all.

I see you're talking about Windows 7, but could this be related to the problem I have under Vista where the Host-only network adapter is enabled, Windows sees that network as "unknown" and so drops privileges/permissions I have set up for my trusted home network? I.e., I can't browse the network, etc. which certainly makes some things look broken. (But not everything. Basic TCP/IP to the Internet is okay.)

If not, I will post questions about this behavior in a separate thread...

This is happening in XP SP3 also. Installed, did an Ubuntu Server 9.04 install, changed the default IP on the VBox network from the default to match the local network. VBox network crashed. Uninstalled VBox, left with an unknown device in Network Adapters with a name of Net. Windows won't uninstall it because it says "The device may be required to boot the system." Seems like this problem happened back in v2.2.2 so what's the deal?

I upgraded from Vista SP2 x64 to 7 RTM x64, 3.0.4 already installed on my Vista before upgrading.

I have two drivers in my device manager that will not go away no matter how many times I uninstall them. Desperate to remove them, I tried to remove 3.0.4. It keeps going gathering information... rolling back. It seems the part that fails in the msi log is the procedure for removing the net bridge adapters/drivers, returns code 1603. I even tried to remove the adapters manually in safe mode, couldn't do it. They just stayed put right there. I did a repair-install and this caused my network icon to have a red X now. I can still get online at this point. However, my button for viewing my network connections in the network and sharing center brings up a blank page now, doesn't list any adapters. The advanced settings on the advanced menu returns "unknown error". And on top of that all, it still won't let me uninstall 3.0.4. I checked out the bridge drivers, one of them is 2.2.4 version (obviously the installer never updated them correctly... even before the 7 upgrade! I hate windows installer!) and was connected to a current adapter, and one of them was 2.2.0 and was connected to an adapter name not currently in the system (the adapter was, but a driver update for it a while ago renamed it). I manually updated their drivers but it said "failed to start"... What I then did was I edited the inf file for the driver to let user uninstall happen, updated each of the bridges with the new driver, which gave me the error "parameter incorrect" because I changed the inf -- but it let me remove them. I also removed my NICs to get things fresh. On reboot, trying to install any NIC kept giving me parameter incorrect. My internet was totally broken and I was unable to install any drivers. I removed all mention of the service name for the bridge network driver in registry, but it did not help... But omg, it uninstalled... still my internet is broken. Great.

So I did a system restore and I'm at square one. How do I correctly manually remove these plights on my system? It seems the issue stemmed not from the upgrade to 7, but from vbox's failure to correctly update the adapters in device manager it installed in the past.

ZPrime wrote:I just upgraded from 3.0.2 (worked fine) to 3.0.4. The newest Bridged networking driver.. has completely broken network connectivity on my machine (Windows 7 RC x64)...

Hmm, strange, we didn't do any modification to the driver installation for 3.0.4. Could you try downgrading to 3.0.2 (which initially worked for you) and see if the issue is now reproducible with 3.0.2 as well?

davidhbrown wrote:..Host-only network adapter is enabled, Windows sees that network as "unknown" and so drops privileges/permissions I have set up for my trusted home network? ...

We fixed similar problem sometime ago, just for the confirmation: you see this issue with VBox 3.0.4, right?

I am facing peculiar problem and looks like it is related to the topic you are describing here.
I have Solaris host and latest VBox installed on it.
I am running "Windows 7", "Open Solaris" and "Ubuntu" as guest OS'es.
When I am browsing inside "Windows 7", suddenly the system hangs.
It hangs the host Solaris itself and I am not able to ping it from other systems on the network.
So, that means it is suddenly removed from the network.

When I am not running "Windows 7", this problem doesn't happen and it keeps running for days.
When "Windows 7" is running in VBox, the system hangs everyday and I have to switchoff/on the host system!!

Anybody else experience this? Is there any workaround or solution?

Thanks,
Narendra

While I am not experiencing this exact problem -- simply due to the fact that my guest won't even boot with Bridged mode enabled -- my issue seems related.

I have VBox 3.0.4 running on a Windows 7 RTM 64-bit host. My guest OS is Windows 7 RTM 32-bit.

There are only two network adapters (of the five that VBox provides) for which Windows 7 automatically detects/installs drivers (see below). Of those two adapters, neither of them functions properly in Bridged mode (they appear to function as expected in NAT, and possibly other modes, but I have not tested this thoroughly).

Here is an analysis of each of the five adapters and how they behave within the guest:

PCnet-PCI II (Am79C970A): No drivers. Guest functions normally, but no network access (obviously).
PCnet-FAST III (Am79C973): No drivers. Guest functions normally, but no network access (obviously).
Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (82540EM): Freezes at "Starting Windows..." in Bridged mode.
Intel PRO/1000 T Server (82543GC): No drivers. Guest functions normally, but no network access (obviously).
Intel PRO/1000 MT Server (82545EM): Freezes at "Starting Windows..." in Bridged mode.

Whenever I attempt to use Bridged networking with the two adapters for which drivers exist, the system boot process freezes at "Starting Windows..." (the screen with the four colored spheres that morph into the Windows logo).

Note that the machine will boot and be usable the FIRST time you switch the network adapter to either of the two semi-functioning Intel adapters; this is because the drivers are not yet installed. If you wait for Windows 7 to detect the network adapter and install the drivers, and then reboot, the freezing will begin.

Is anyone else able to confirm this analysis?

The issue that I raised, immediately above (networking issues with the GUEST), appears to have been resolved in version 3.0.8. It is possible that it was fixed in 3.0.6 -- I had not re-tested this since 3.0.4.

Thank you, Developers.