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I'm trying to connect to a VPN from within VirtualBox. The VPN client is Juniper's Netscreen-Remote. The guest OS is Windows XP SP3 32-bit, and the host OS is Windows 7 32-bit. I'm sitting behind a NetGear RP614v4.

I have tried setting the network type to Host Only in the VB GUI, and bridging the VirtualBox adapter with my LAN adapter within Windows 7. I was unable to get any internet connectivity.

I noticed that the guest was getting an ip of 192.168.56.*, while my host has 192.168.1.*. So, from the VirtualBox GUI, I went to File->Preferences->Network, clicked on "Edit Host-only network", and changed the 56 octet to a 1 under "Adapter" as well as under "DHCP ServeR". No change in connectivity from the guest.

I then tried changing the network type to Bridge, and set the adapter to the MAC bridge mini-port that I created earlier. Still can't ping out.

I deleted the bridge within Windows 7, and set the interface to my PC's NIC. Now I can ping out, but my VPN client won't connect.

Connected my PC directly to my modem. This time, XP is telling me that my connection has "limited or no connectivity".

I go into File->Preferences->Network, click on "Edit Host-only network". The third octet has been changed back to a 56 under "Adapter", but still a 1 under "DHCP Server". I changed these back to 56. Still "limited or no connectivity".

Each time I made any change above, I restarted the guest machine. The VPN is configured correctly, as I can connect to it from a machine running Windows XP SP3. Also, Windows 7 is configured to use OpenDNS, in case that's relevant.

Hopefully I've provided enough information here to be useful. If not, just ask and I'll do my best to answer. Any help would be greatly appreciated

It's obvious you have no idea what you're doing, and are therefore trying things and see if it works. You really should read the manual so you know which attached mode provides what kind of connectivity for the Guest. Your third try, the bridge directed at the physical NIC, is the proper way to do things. That way, the Guest will be like a separate machine on the network. If your VPN isn't working, see if you can access other things on the internet or even the server you're trying to VPN into.

You're right, I don't know what I'm doing. That's why I'm posting here. I guess I should have mentioned that to begin with. Sorry about that.

I did read the manual; I know that I can't use NAT, since it doesn't support any protocols other than TCP and UDP, and my VPN requires GRE. From what I understand from the manual, Bridged networking seemed to be the best bet, but I actually tried that first, and didn't have any success. Then I read a forum post suggesting to do it with Host-only (see http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?p=17955).

You said my third try is the way to do it. I can access the internet with it configured like that, and I can ping my server's public IP. But I'm unable to connect using my VPN client. Here's a sample of the logs, in case they might be relevant:

8-28: 17:32:44.025 My Connections\[redacted] - SENDING>>>> ISAKMP OAK MM (SA, VID 2x)
8-28: 17:32:59.542 My Connections\[redacted] - message not received! Retransmitting!
8-28: 17:32:59.542 My Connections\[redacted] - SENDING>>>> ISAKMP OAK MM (Retransmission)
8-28: 17:33:14.633 My Connections\[redacted] - message not received! Retransmitting!
8-28: 17:33:14.633 My Connections\[redacted] - SENDING>>>> ISAKMP OAK MM (Retransmission)
8-28: 17:33:29.755 My Connections\[redacted] - message not received! Retransmitting!
8-28: 17:33:29.755 My Connections\[redacted] - SENDING>>>> ISAKMP OAK MM (Retransmission)

Sasquatch, I appreciate you letting me know which is the correct configuration. Any other ideas as to why the VPN client won't work?

Edit: I noticed that my guest machine has an ip of 192.168.1.3, and my host has a 192.168.1.5. Interestingly enough, I'm able to ping my host from my guest, but vice versa times out.

If you can't even ping the Guest from the Host, or any other system on your network, then it's the default crappy Windows Firewall that's causing all the problems. Disable it and try again.

I disabled the firewall on the guest, and this allowed me to ping from the guest to the host. Unfortunately, that didn't resolve the VPN issue. I also tried disabling the firewall on the host, but this didn't have any effect.

I appreciate your continued input Sasquatch What did you think of the forum post I linked to? Is Host-only a viable option at all? Any other ideas as to how to get this working?

The 'solution' in that topic is from an ancient version. It's from when things went the 'hard' way for getting bridged working. Doing that for Host-Only is even worse than NAT, because it's not created for that purpose.

Now, what you can do, is grab and install Wireshark and monitor your network traffic. See what goes out and what comes in. Do that for both systems, the VM and the one that works. Compare the results and post them here. Maybe someone with a bit more knowledge about that than me can help you with it.