Windows 7 does not detect my wifi adapter

[ianbrinksman]

Good Evening Everyone,

I am new to VirtualBox (4.1.16) and as of today have been playing around with Window 7 on my MacBook Pro. Unfortunately, I have been unable to connect to the internet and am having little luck with the existing forum topics.

Anyway, every time I attempt to connect to my wifi network, I see that Windows 7 does not detect my wifi adapter (screenshot1). I've gone through a few different tutorials: my guest additions are installed (screenshot2), I setup my bridged adapter (screenshot3) like I was instructed to. Really, any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated, as I am at my wit's end.

Cheers

[Perryg]

The guest is actually going to use the hosts NIC. So you will not see it as a wifi adapter, but a wired connection. Make sure that you have the Intel PRO/1000 MT desktop for the adapter type.

[ianbrinksman]

Hi Perry,

Thank you for the reply. Unfortunately I'm a bit lay when it comes to this stuff. Mind explaining a few things:

"Make sure that you have the Intel PRO/1000 MT desktop for the adapter type."

Where can I confirm this? I assume this needs to be installed on the Windows 7 vm machine? Do I have to make any additional changes with the setup?

Thanks!
Ian

[mpack]

The hardware recipe for the Virtual Machine is configured in the VM settings. Included in that is the network interface card (NIC) type. See the "Network" section of your VM settings dialog.

The main thing for you to remember is the meaning of the word "virtual". It means that all the hardware that the guest sees is simulated. The simulation will indirectly use the capabilities of the host, but the guest will not be aware of host hardware directly.

In this case the VM will simulate an "Intel PRO/1000 MT desktop" cabled Ethernet NIC, that is what the guest OS will think is present. When the guest tries to communicate using that NIC, the comms will actually go out using whatever capability the host has - in this case that would be your hosts wireless NIC.

So, I hope by now that you understand that your topic title: "Windows 7 (guest) does not detect my wifi adapter" should really draw the response "well of course not".

[ianbrinksman]

Ha, indeed.

Thank you both. That solved it -- full internet access.

Cheers,
Ian