Windows 7 Bridged Network not working

[bearbo]

Hello,

I have a strange problem with running virtual machines.

I have 2 physical machines: a Mac Pro running 10.6.7 and a Macbook Pro running 10.6.7. Ideally I'd like to run Windows 7 on the Mac Pro, with bridged network for streaming hulu plus to my PS3, as PSN is down at the moment. Anyway, when I have Windows 7 installed on the VirtualBox on the Mac Pro, it works with NAT. However, if I switched it to Bridged, the Windows 7 would freeze after it renewed its DCHP lease (50% of the time). If I'm lucky and the Windows 7 doesn't freeze, it will get an IP, but apparently cannot talk to the DNS server, the DHCP server, or any other hosts on the network.

Alternatively, if I run a Windows XP guest on top of the Mac Pro, I don't have any of those problems (i.e. bridged networking works fine).
Second alternatively, if I run a Windows 7 guest on top of the Macbook Pro (same VirtualBox version), I don't have any of those problems either.

I have just reinstalled the Mac Pro from scratch this morning, didn't solve anything.

Any help is very much appreciated.

[Sasquatch]

Is the Windows 7 you run on both systems one and the same, or are they different installs? If they are different, then the problem is most likely in the installation of W7. See if a new, clean install helps on the problematic machine. You can create a new VM for it if you want, so you don't remove the existing one. It will be a test that might go to production after all, and it would be a shame to waste an activation on it.

[bearbo]

I have tried using the exact same working VM copied from Macbook Pro, but as soon as its ran on the Mac Pro, it stopped working. I have also tried installing a new VM on the Mac Pro, same symptoms.

[muraiki]

I also have a Mac Pro with the same problem. I couldn't get bridged networking with a Windows 7 client to work properly: the system can't see the domain and Windows reports that there is no internet access. There's a thread where two people were able to resolve this, but neither approach worked for me. NAT works fine, though.

[mschwartz]

Maybe windows firewall is blocking things. You can try turning it off and see if that solves it.

[muraiki]

I disabled Windows Firewall, but I still have the same problem.

[SeanHansell]

I am experiencing these exact symptoms on my Mac Pro 3,1 running Lion 10.7.2, VBox 4.1.4 with a Windows 7 SP1 32-bit client.

I connect with DHCP, then freeze, then lose connection while in bridged ethernet but can work fine in NAT as long as I reboot between changes.

[SeanHansell]

Windows 8 Dev 64-bit as well.

[BillG]

I am experiencing these exact symptoms on my Mac Pro 3,1 running Lion 10.7.2, VBox 4.1.4 with a Windows 7 SP1 32-bit client.

I connect with DHCP, then freeze, then lose connection while in bridged ethernet but can work fine in NAT as long as I reboot between changes.

If DHCP is the problem, why not give the vm a static config? Have a good look at the config you get from DHCP and set up a static config with everything exactly the same except the IP address. Give it an IP that is reserved or in the high end of your DHCP scope.

[SeanHansell]

Yes, I'm going to try that as a workaround when I get to work on Monday, but I just want to make Vbox devs aware of it for a future fix.

Thanks for the advice.

[Sasquatch]

Yes, I'm going to try that as a workaround when I get to work on Monday, but I just want to make Vbox devs aware of it for a future fix.

Thanks for the advice.

With that in mind, that you have this problem at work, did you already check with your network admin? It is quite plausible that there is a network security at work here. Ask about that, because that will make it a completely different story: not VB related.

[SeanHansell]

I will ask. I should say though that VBox is utilized in the company with this configuration and I'm the only one to my knowledge having this issue on Windows 7. Further, I have a Windows XP VM that works fine on my MacPro with this same network configuration. I'll definitely ask, but the answer is pretty heavily weighted towards being a VBox issue, unless I'm missing some context.

I'm also going to see if I can find another Mac Pro with my hardware configuration to see if I can reproduce the symptoms. I may need to reimage my host.