Confusion about network types / configs

[piotrgal]

Hi
I have read the network configuration in the manual few times, but it's still confusing to me in regards to my goal.
Basically what I want is to set up a "virtual" network inside my host with few virtual machines talking to each other, which is hidden from outside world, but also has internet access.
So my obvious choice was NAT, but I was suprised that EVERY machine gets separate, independent NAT... - why it is like that ?
I thougth if I choose NAT, they all will simply work under the same NAT, so they can see each other (just like private network behind firewall/proxy), but that's not the case because every machine gets its own isolated NAT...
So, I looked at the other modes - internal netwok and host-only, but they both don't provide internet access... (and bridged I don't want because it opens up my "net")

How can I achieve my goal ?
How can I get shared NAT ?

Regards,
Piotr

[Perryg]

The Internal mode emulates a network switch and allows the guests to all talk together and *not* the internet or the host.
This mode is very useful for testing domain setups and the like. But as you see it does not allow for Internet access.
Now the trick is how to get the Internet on these machines. You have two options. If you want to set these up as close to a true domain then you add another guest to provide routing to the Internal (switch) network, or you add a second adapter to each guest that need the Internet set to NAT.