Best vBox version for Bridged Network

[prs1025]

I'm just wondering what the best version is for using bridged networking. And by best I mean the version where this function actually works.
I'm using 3.0.4 with XP SP3 host and XP SP2 guest. I'm trying to use an adapter on the guest (with a static IP) to connect to the LAN on the host. Basically, I want to use the guest to run software that I don't want on the host. This software will need to communicate with other devices (ie PLCs, Robot Controllers, GUIs, etc) via the LAN connection on the host.
I can't seem to make this happen with my current version of vBox, however I have read that this is possible with some of the other versions. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[Perryg]

First question is do you have a router?
From my experience with Bridged mode in VBox it works fine in all of the versions that I have used starting back in version 1.X.
The only difference was before they had bridged mode they had host interface and I had to setup my own bridge. Still it worked fine.

[Sasquatch]

I see you started a new thread for your problem. What was wrong with the previous topic? We were still trying to get it fixed, weren't we?

[prs1025]

First let me say that I appreciate the time you've spent trying to help me. I started a new thread because I was thinking this was a new topic (trying to follow the forum rules).

My understanding was that I had everything set up correctly and that I need to talk to our IT guy at work. However I couldn't get the bridged connection to work even when trying to directly connect my laptop to another device (ie: PLC, Robot controller, etc.). I had read on a few different post about people having problems using the bridged connection in v3.x but that some were able to use on earlier versions. Hence this post in this forum.

[Perryg]

Sounds like you are on a proxy network. Which means in essence you are not really on a router. All rules are controlled by the admin of the proxy and that means you will not be able to use bridged even to connect to the guest on your host. You would need to use host-only to be able to direct connect to your guest<>host.

[prs1025]

Sounds like you are on a proxy network. Which means in essence you are not really on a router. All rules are controlled by the admin of the proxy and that means you will not be able to use bridged even to connect to the guest on your host. You would need to use host-only to be able to direct connect to your guest<>host.

You are correct. I am not using a router. I am plugging my laptop directly into a robot controller. This controller does not act as a server. It just has a dumb RJ45 socket. I'm using a crossover cable to connect.
I tried using the Host-Only setting but it didn't work either. I will try again. Thanks

[Perryg]

Well in that scenario there is no wonder why it does not work. If you can connect to the robot controller it will more than likely be from the host. There are a few requirements that you would need to make sure that it worked. First they would need to be in the same address scheme. Then you would need to connect via IP address. I don't see this working in the guest though I could be wrong. I have not tested this type of connection out in VBox, but have in a one-to-one connection via crossover cable, but at this point you are not really networking but using the net adapter as a port to connect the (2) units together.

[vbox4me2]

I am plugging my laptop directly into a robot controller. This controller does not act as a server. It just has a dumb RJ45 socket. I'm using a crossover cable to connect.
I tried using the Host-Only setting but it didn't work either. I will try again. Thanks

Use Bridge mode, plugin the robot, assign a static address to the Guest in the range of the robots address(no gateway), ea:

Robot: 192.168.200.100
Guest: 192.168.200.250
On the Guest in a cmd box type: route add 192.168.200.100 mask 255.255.255.255 192.168.200.250 metric 1
This will route all robot traffic to the Guest adapter where you assigned the static address to, which should be the second one connected to the robot, adjust IP ranges as required.

[prs1025]

I am plugging my laptop directly into a robot controller. This controller does not act as a server. It just has a dumb RJ45 socket. I'm using a crossover cable to connect.
I tried using the Host-Only setting but it didn't work either. I will try again. Thanks

Use Bridge mode, plugin the robot, assign a static address to the Guest in the range of the robots address(no gateway), ea:

Robot: 192.168.200.100
Guest: 192.168.200.250
On the Guest in a cmd box type: route add 192.168.200.100 mask 255.255.255.255 192.168.200.250 metric 1
This will route all robot traffic to the Guest adapter where you assigned the static address to, which should be the second one connected to the robot, adjust IP ranges as required.

Thanks for the tip. I'll give this a try as soon as I return to work on Tuesday. If this works it'll really help me out a lot.

[prs1025]

I am plugging my laptop directly into a robot controller. This controller does not act as a server. It just has a dumb RJ45 socket. I'm using a crossover cable to connect.
I tried using the Host-Only setting but it didn't work either. I will try again. Thanks

Use Bridge mode, plugin the robot, assign a static address to the Guest in the range of the robots address(no gateway), ea:

Robot: 192.168.200.100
Guest: 192.168.200.250
On the Guest in a cmd box type: route add 192.168.200.100 mask 255.255.255.255 192.168.200.250 metric 1
This will route all robot traffic to the Guest adapter where you assigned the static address to, which should be the second one connected to the robot, adjust IP ranges as required.

Thanks for the tip. I'll give this a try as soon as I return to work on Tuesday. If this works it'll really help me out a lot.

Hi vbox4me2,
I've tried adding the route as you described above but it didn't really work. I think it let me add the route but when I tried to ping or connect to the device I still couldn't. Here's the ipconfig from the guest. Can you see if I did something wrong?

Code: Select all

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\TO>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : vbox
        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter Adapter1:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/1000 MT Desktop Adapter

        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 08-00-27-14-82-A7
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.2.15
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.2.2
        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.2.2
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.200
                                            99.22.42.118
        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Monday, September 14, 2009 2:24:37 P
M
        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, September 15, 2009 2:24:37
PM

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 4:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/1000 MT Network Connect
ion
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 08-00-27-E5-6F-05
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.125.4
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter Bluetooth Network Connection:

        Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Netw
ork) #2
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-16-41-5C-E9-37

C:\Documents and Settings\TO>

Thanks

Modedit: Please use code blocks for terminal/command prompt output, makes it more readable.

[vbox4me2]

Connection 4, I assume?? whats the robot address? could you use a small lan switch so you can see the lights flash when data is going about / making sure a ping is going out the right lan card?

[Sasquatch]

And what do you get if you disable (virtually unplug) the NIC attached to NAT?

[prs1025]

Connection 4, I assume?? whats the robot address? could you use a small lan switch so you can see the lights flash when data is going about / making sure a ping is going out the right lan card?

It is connection 4. The robot address is 192.168.125.1. I can try to get a small switch, however I only have 1 LAN card.

[prs1025]

And what do you get if you disable (virtually unplug) the NIC attached to NAT?

Sorry about the code blocks. I thought I did it right with that last post but obviously not.
I disabled the wireless (NAT connection) in the host but that didn't seem to help.

[vbox4me2]

If you only have one lan card how are you assigning the VM ? only use Bridge and nothing else.