When using linux guests, networking breaks in windows

[Stragulus]

Hi,

My situation: I run windows 8 64-bits as host. My guest is an ubuntu 12.4 vhost. For networking, it uses bridged networking, using the gigabit ethernet port for the connection.

Before I start the linux guest, networking works well in windows 8. After I have started the linux guest, network requests on the windows host suddenly fail. Networking within the linux guest, however, works perfectly fine. It gets an IP address using DHCP, and everything else works as expect.

If I pause the linux guest, networking in windows 8 will work fine again. Unpause, and it will break. That can be repeated over and over and over again.

I've done a little diagnosing. When the windows 8 network fails while the ubuntu guest is running, I open a CLI and run some commands:

• pinging 8.8.4.4 fails consistently (TTL expired in transit)
• pinging 192.168.1.1 (default gateway, also local dns server) gets replies though
• nslookup anything fails (no response from server)

When I then pause the ubuntu guest, everything immediately works (as in, instantly):

• pinging 8.8.4.4 gets replies
• nslookup anything works

Even more strangely, when the guest is running normally and the network issues as seen above are occurring, I can influence the behavior by opening a browser on the windows host and start surfing to websites. The browser intermittently doesn't work, where it then fails to load pages. If I just keep on surfing once it works, it seems to keep working for quite a while though. When I then leave ping -t 8.8.4.4 open in a cmd window next to the browser, I can see that ping responses come in about right at the time when I request a new page in the browser.

I've upgraded to windows 8 from windows 7. When running windows 7, these issues did not exist. They started right after the upgrade to windows 8. Also, I am now running the latest version of virtualbox and the extensions pack and the guest additions ( 4.2.8 ). The issues have existed in a couple previous versions as well.
Is this a known issue? What more information do you need from me to diagnose this furter?

[noteirak]

What is the IP & MAC address of the host and the guest?

[Stragulus]

The (ubuntu) guest IP/mask & Mac: 192.168.0.179/255.255.192.0 & 08:00:27:a6:c3:f9

The (win8) host IP/mask & Mac: 192.168.0.100/255.255.192.0 & 00:21:CC:C4:C3:A7

[noteirak]

I would hope they would overlap which would explain the issue directly...
Did you disable firewalls and co on your host & guest?

[Stragulus]

The windows firewall was enabled; I disabled this now. Ubuntu's firewall is disabled as well. I didn't notice any change in behavior.

[noteirak]

Could you show the output of :

On the host

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ipconfig /all
route print

On the guest

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ifconfig
route

[Stragulus]

Windows, ipconfig /all:

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Windows IP Configuration

   Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : thinkpad
   Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . : 
   Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
   IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
   WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : lan

Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 11:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : 
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : E0-06-E6-C4-64-C8
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Wireless LAN adapter WiFi:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : 
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 1x1 11b/g/n Wireless LAN PCI Express Half Mini Card Adapter
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : E0-06-E6-C4-64-C8
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : lan
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-21-CC-C4-C3-A7
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.100(Preferred) 
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.192.0
   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : maandag 4 maart 2013 10:34:11
   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : maandag 4 maart 2013 22:34:14
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 12:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : 
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft 6to4 Adapter
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter isatap.lan:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : 
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #2
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 13:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : 
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Windows host, route print:

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===========================================================================
Interface List
 18...e0 06 e6 c4 64 c8 ......Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter
 13...e0 06 e6 c4 64 c8 ......1x1 11b/g/n Wireless LAN PCI Express Half Mini Card Adapter
 12...00 21 cc c4 c3 a7 ......Intel(R) 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection
  1...........................Software Loopback Interface 1
 16...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft 6to4 Adapter
 15...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #2
 17...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
===========================================================================

IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0      192.168.1.1    192.168.0.100     20
        127.0.0.0        255.0.0.0         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
        127.0.0.1  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
  127.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
      169.254.0.0      255.255.0.0         On-link     192.168.0.100     21
  169.254.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.0.100    276
      192.168.0.0    255.255.192.0         On-link     192.168.0.100    276
    192.168.0.100  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.0.100    276
   192.168.63.255  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.0.100    276
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link     192.168.0.100    276
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.0.100    276
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
  Network Address          Netmask  Gateway Address  Metric
      169.254.0.0      255.255.0.0   169.254.32.208       1
      169.254.0.0      255.255.0.0    192.168.0.100       1
===========================================================================

IPv6 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
 If Metric Network Destination      Gateway
  1    306 ::1/128                  On-link
  1    306 ff00::/8                 On-link
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
  None

Ubuntu guest, ifconfig -a:

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eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 08:00:27:a6:c3:f9  
          inet addr:192.168.0.179  Bcast:192.168.63.255  Mask:255.255.192.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::a00:27ff:fea6:c3f9/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:150155 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:155565 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:95648086 (95.6 MB)  TX bytes:125845887 (125.8 MB)

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:8049 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:8049 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:892628 (892.6 KB)  TX bytes:892628 (892.6 KB)

Ubuntu guest, route -nv:

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Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
0.0.0.0         192.168.1.1     0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 eth1
169.254.0.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.0.0     U     1000   0        0 eth1
192.168.0.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.192.0   U     1      0        0 eth1

[noteirak]

Your network config seems fine, even tho the use of the 255.255.192.0 is very uncommon. Can you confirm that your router is on 255.255.192.0 too?

[Stragulus]

Yes. That is set to 192.168.0.0/18. It is indeed wider than usual.

[Stragulus]

I did disable the 'host only' virtualbox network adapter prior to showing you the routes and configs above, as I wondered if that might have had any effect on the setup. But the symptoms are identical before and after I made that change, but just so you know.

[noteirak]

Well it seems like you gonna have to do some packet sniffing to see where they are going exactly...

From the facts you gave us, you are able to access your LAN on both OS, it is simply when trying to go on Internet that the problem is.
So there is no problem with Virtualbox, the issue is somewhere else. Either on your router or your OSes.

[Stragulus]

The problem is, that internet access works 100% great and without errors when there is no virtualbox guest running. It's only when I fire up the virtualbox guest, that the windows host starts to have all these strange issues. So, from this it would seem that networking is configured OK on the host.

As I said in the first post, if I pause the guest, the host suddenly works 100% again, including all kinds of lan and internet access. Unpause, and it immediately breaks again. Repeat ad infinitum.

[noteirak]

Yes, but the issue most likely lies on the guest OS, somewhere... I am out of ideas I must say.
Maybe others will have more.

[Stragulus]

Hmm. Ok, so next step would be to minimalize the impact of the guest.. I could try and fire up a new guest with an extremely bare debian install that doesn't even touch the network, but with the guest configured to use the gigabit ethernet adapter in bridged mode anyway. If that still breaks things, we've at least narrowed down the problem. I'll try and play with some settings to see if I can track this down a little further.

Other suggestions are still welcome of course.

[Stragulus]

Ok, a very simple test to show that it's something virtualbox:

I have no guests running. I run a CLI with ping -t 8.8.4.4. The replies are coming in.

Now, I simply start a new debian guest which is configured with bridged networking on the gigabit ethernet adapter (no other network adapters are active in the system). I immediately hit F12 to enter the boot menu of the guest. The pings in the CLI immediately stop coming in and all time out. I pause the guest, the pings immediately continue. I unpause the guest, the pings immediately time out. This, again, can be repeated indefinitely. Note that the guest didn't even boot at this point!

If I change the guest's settings to use NAT instead of bridged networking, everything works and there are no issues. However, I need bridged networking as I normally run multiple guests that need to see each other on the office network.

Here's a screenshot of the network failing with the (only running) guest VM in the boot menu:



Now what?