IP Conflict when using Wireless Bridged in Laptop

[gaminel]

I have read all the forums and still haven't figure out why I get an IP Conflict when I use the wireless adapter. This problem doesn't occur when I user the wired connection, or if I use VMWare. I really like this Virtual Box, and would like to understand why this is happening and if it can be addressed.

[vbox4me2]

With Bridge your wireless router(dchp server) might be getting confused, ea. not looking at the mac address.

[Sasquatch]

Actually, it might look at the MAC address. VB tries to use the physical adapter but send requests using the virtual MAC address. If it can't get a connection that way, it will use the physical MAC address. Because it uses the physical adapter's MAC address, the router will give the same IP address, because it keeps track of which MAC gets which IP. But the actual machine that gets the IP is not the machine the router thinks it should get, hence the conflict.
This backup method of connecting depends on the physical adapter and it's driver, not all drivers and adapters allow network packages to be send with a different MAC address source than it has.

[gaminel]

Thank you for your clarification. What I am doing is ignoring the error, and it works fine. This error happens both in my company's setting as well as my home. I wonder how is VM Ware handling this? I did not get those errors with it. I did get the same errors with MS Virtual PC. In any case, a nice problem to have given the performance of the virtual machine vs the other two options.

[Sasquatch]

The IP conflict should never be ignored but solved instead. At home it's quite easy to solve, you simply set a static IP on either the Host or Guest, but at work it's something else. You have to ask your system administrator if there is any IP address you can freely use for static configuration.