VPN on XP Guest Not Working

[pabloikba]

I have Ubuntu 10.10 host with Win XP guest. I can access my workplace via VPN from the Host but not from the Guest.
Currently, Guest uses NAT to access the internet but I cannot successfully connect via VPN to my workplace.
I have searched everywhere for a step by step to get this working but cannot find the solution. Can someone please help guide me set up the Guest networking so that I can successfully use the VPN?
Thank you,
Pablo

[BillG]

VPN connections often have problems with NAT. Is your host on a LAN with a DHCP server? If it is, try bridged mode. If you can connect from the host, you should be able to from the guest.

If your host connects directly to the Internet and has a registered public IP, bridged mode won't work for you.

[pabloikba]

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate your efforts.

The host is 192.168.0.198 and the gateway is 192.168.0.1 (Smoothwall Router). Bridge-utils is installed on host. All works fine with the host.
I gave the guest WinXP an IP of 192.168.0.180 (The DHCP range is 192.168.0.100-134). I enabled bridged networking. In Network connections it shows up. But, can't get on the internet at all from guest now.
I must be missing something but I can't figure out what it is.

[BillG]

Why did you manually configure the guest? Did auto config fail? It should get its config from DHCP if you have it configured as bridged.

If it won't get its config from DHCP, ensure that all settings (except the ip itself) are identical to the config which the host gets from DHCP.

[pabloikba]

Thanks for the info....I am not sure about the second point you made...."...ensure that all settings (except the ip itself) are identical to the config which the host gets from DHCP"

The host is static IP at 192.168.0.198. Which settings are you referring to?

In the meantime, I will reset the WinXP to get dynamic DHCP with Bridged-networking and see what happens.

I really appreciate your input - thanks.

[pabloikba]

Amazing! I did as you suggested and it works! Bridged-networking and not designating an IP address was the answer. And, the VPN works also. Thanks so much.....

Pablo

[pabloikba]

One further question, if you could take the time....

The Internet Connection shows 10mbps and the Lan shows 100mbps - is this normal?

Thanks

Pablo

[pabloikba]

Today, the WinXP guest has decided that it wants to boot with an IP of 168.192.1.3. None of the settings have changed. The Vbox setting for Network is still Bridged-Networking with EthO. The WinXP's IP config is still to "obtain automatically"...
If I do an Ipconfig /release and then a /renew - it says "access denied".
any ideas?

Thanks

[pabloikba]

Ubuntu 10.10 - Vbox 4.0

I guess I need more help. I am not able to make bridge networking work on a regular basis. About 9 times out of 10 it does not work. The occasional 1 time out of 10, it is great.
I cannot figure out what to do. Any suggestions would be truly appreciated.

Pablo

[pabloikba]

A perplexing issue:

After a week of not being able to use Bridged Networking, it finally worked (no settings changed) properly. So, on a hunch, instead of a normal WInXP shutdown, I "saved the machine state". The next two times I started the WinXP guest, it loaded properly. Then, I did a normal shutdown and Bridged Networking is not working again.

Any ideas, anyone?

Many thanks,

Pablo