virtualbox.org

Host is Ubuntu 10.10
guest is xp s3
I have a folder on my xp guest that I want to share on the windows network. I have both native window xp machines and linux with samba client machines on my network and can share folders between my native windows xp machines and my linux machines both ways so the windows workgroup network is stable

I have installed an xp s3 guest on one of my linux boxes and added it to my workgroup. My xp s3 has network access and is working (can access the Internet). I can 'see' my xp s3 guest in my workgroup on all my native windows and linux systems.
I have set up a shared folder on my xp s3 guest. However, when I click on my guest computer name in the workgroup on another system I get an error:

Unable to mount location
Failed to retrieve share list from server

from my linux/samba client
and a similiar message from my native xp windows system

I have guest additions loaded and know that I can share a host system linux file on my guest xp but I'm trying to get xp network file sharing going.

All the appropriate checkboxes in the guest xp system hve been set.

What am I doing wrong

cacheflow

Using Bridged mode?

So, I believe I will answer my own question here so others wont waste a lot of time on this.

Normal xp guest installation gives you a NAT style network connection which is managed by your host system much like a router. Since you have your host and possibly multiple guests, the NAT/router will work great as a client for browsing the web and looking at file servers on other machines in your network (both in your NAT network on the host and outside your host on your local network). But, if you want to set up a server, such as windows file sharing, on your guest and you are using NAT as your network connections, then much like a router, you have to define port forwarding for your windows file sharing. Well, if you do that, then your host of your guest or any other guest will not have access to that port. What this means is that you cannot have, say, samba file sharing on your host linux system AND file sharing for your xp guest, only one machine instance managed by the NAT/router on the host can get that port.

See http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch06.html for lots more information.

Now, as the previous poster pointed out, you can select the 'bridged' network and all seems to work well.

I'm not sure why the 'bridged' network is not the default

cacheflow

Bridged mode is not the default because there are many prerequisites for it to work. For bridged mode to work by default, the host machine must be attached to a network which has a DHCP server. This is becoming more common but I doubt that the majority of new VirtualBox users are in that position. NAT is the setup most likely to work "out of the box".