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I'm sorry to ask such a basic question, but I can't find an answer anywhere. I suspect that a bridged guest IS NOT behind the host's firewall, but I need confirmation. A method to test it would also be welcome.

What I'm trying to do:
I want to turn on file & printer sharing between the host and guests only, without opening the firewall's NetBIOS ports. I can use grc.com, Shield's Up to confirm that the ports are closed.

If a bridged guest IS NOT behind the host's firewall, what about Host-Only mode? I couldn't get Host-Only mode to work, but if that's the way to do what I want, I'll give it another try.

Again, I apologize. I could just give things a try, but I don't know what to expect, so I don't know how to interpret the results. Thanks in advance - Mark.

No. A bridged guest is like having two PCs on one multidrop cable from the router. The two PCs need independant network security (or not, depending if you buy into all that security hype). Personally, I'm happy to let my guest run at optimal speeds, and throw it away if it gets infected, restoring from a clone/backup.

What did you expect Host Only mode to do? If you were trying to connect to a network, I can see why you couldn't get it to work.

As its name implies, the host only interface is an interface on the host which can only be reached from a vm. The vm can connect to the host through it, but nothing else.

BillG wrote:...the host only interface is an interface on the host which can only be reached from a vm. The vm can connect to the host through it, but nothing else.

Bill, the documentation says essentially what you wrote, however, it goes on to say that the two (or more) machines can then be put on the Internet through Internet connection sharing in the host - Mark.

UPDATE: As of this date (July 2012) ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) will not work for either bridged or host-only modes in Windows. - M.

mpack wrote:No. A bridged guest ...

You're correct. That's why I'm switching to Host-Only. - Mark.