16-bit Application and IPX/SPX on Windows XP

[ljreed]

Hi,

I am trying to setup a virtualbox on a machine running Kubuntu 9.04 that is running Windows XP. I am hoping to virtualise several of our basic servers that run Windows XP to save on physical space in our server room. Some of these machines run a legacy 16-bit application that is a client that connects to Netware server via IPX/SPX.

The procedure I use to get this application running is as follows.

1. Install the Client Service for Netware which also automatically installs the relevant IPX/SPX protocals and restart the computer.
2. When the computer has rebooted and I logon to XP I am asked to select a Netware host (I think this is correct but I can't remember) and just accept default settings.
3. I open the properties of the network connection and go into the properties of the NWLink IPX/SPX protocol and change the Frame Type to Ethernet 802.3. This is necessary as no other setting works, even auto detect.
4. I open a command prompt and navigate to the folder the 16-bit program is located (C:\IMSTERM) and perform the following command "hostlist > nwterm.ini". The scans the network for netware servers and put the results into the nwterm.ini file.
5. I edit the nwterm.ini file as each client needs a unique licence number as the hostlist command returns all available licences and dumps them in the ini file.
6. I run the 16-bit application called nwterm.exe and it connects to the netware server that is running our bespoke legacy accounting database.

Anyway, I can get this running flawlessly on every single computer running Windows XP by doing the above procedure except for the machines running in Virtualbox. The protocols install without a hitch and i set the properties as normal but when I try to run the hostlist command it returns a null value as it can't find anything. The odd thing is that I can successfully map a network drive to the C: Drive of the server and see the contents of it so the server is reachable. I have tried changing the Frame Type to auto detect to see if that would work but i doesn't. The client application refuses to connect even if I enter all the setting into the ini file manually that are copied from a machine that works.

Could it be that because the virtual machine uses the physical network connection of the host linux machine the protocol on the XP machine isn't working as it cannot get through due to the network connection on the linux host machine not recognising the IPX/SPX protocol and therefore not passing them on?

Any ideas on how I might go about solving this?

Thanks

[BillG]

I think that you can rule out the host machine as causing the problem. If you are using bridged mode for the NIC, the host will not see the traffic. Traffic for the vm is filtered out at a low level in the NIC driver software and redirected to the vm. The vm has its own IP and MAC address. The vm should look the same as any machine on the LAN as far as networking is concerned. That said, I have never run IPX in a vm, so I can't definitely say that it works.