virtualbox.org

I have a brand new Macbook Pro with the latest VirtualBox installed.
The host is OS X Lion (10.7.2)
The VM is Windows 7 32bit.

I require the use of a VPN because I work from home so NAT won't work for me.

From my house, using Bridged networking my Windows VM can connect to my VPN and it works fine (so far), however I have internet issues at home so I often have to drive down the road to my in-laws.

At their house, my Windows VM won't connect to the VPN or the internet at all in Bridged mode. (EDIT: Note, the specific issue in Bridged mode at the in-laws is that it says the DNS server is not responding. /EDIT) If I switch to NAT I can get on the internet, but not VPN.

The odd part to me, is that when I am at home my VM says it is using "Network 2" for the network card, but from my in-laws it says it is using "Network 3". Only the one in use shows up and I cannot modify the other. They both have the same settings from what I can see, which is essentially the default for Bridged.

At home I am using an Apple Time Capsule for my router, at the in-laws they have a 2Wire AT&T box that they cannot manage.


I currently have a workaround in that I am connecting to the VPN from OS X and that seems to be passing through to the Windows VM when it is in NAT mode, but I don't want to have this setup permanently. Is there any known issues like this? Anyone have any advice?

Which VPN are you using? AFAIK, only PPTP and SSTP need bridged, and thus can't be used with NAT. IPSec and IPsec/L2TP can be used with NAT. The reason is because PPTP uses the GRE protocol, and NAT doesn't route that. IPsec and L2TP use TCP only.

I am using PPTP and now I have a new issue.
On Friday from the in-laws I could connect to the VPN from within OS X and using NAT on the VM get to my VPN computers correctly.
Today, from the in-laws I can connect to the VPN from within OS X...but I cannot ping any of the IPs I need in OS X or in the VM.
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Using NAT on the VM I can still get to the internet, but that's as far as I can get now. The VPN connects correctly within OS X but doesn't work correctly, and I still have the same issue at the in-laws where if I turn Bridged on I get no internet connection at all within the VM, however if I drive 10 minutes home I can get internet perfectly fine in the VM in Bridged.

Sounds like their router is not playing nice for you. Are you using wifi or cable? If using cable, it wouldn't make much sense, since that should work no matter what. But with wifi, things get more complicated and has a lot more variables to check.

As for your ping to the other side, that's not a VB issue, you have to ask that to the network guys.

I know this is an old post but since I had the problem today and it is still relevant, I tried to go to my VPN through NAT and it did not work thank goodness for this post saying it would only work Bridged and was correct! I am using PPTP! Thank you guys!