Intermittent network on Windows Server 2008 R2

[fmaste]

Hi,

I'm having network problems since I installed VirtualBox on a Windows Server 2008 R2 64 bits machine. I tested with iperf and the speed suddenly goes to zero for a couple of seconds once every 1 to 3 minutes. I tried between other computers on the LAN simultaneously and when it happens it's only on the server with VirtualBox installed. VirtualBox was never running, just installed.

I uninstalled VirtualBox with the Windows uninstall utility and the problem remained. I installed VirtualBox again and the ext-pack I had installed reappeared automagically with the host-only network I had created, those were never uninstalled!!!. So I removed the host-only adapter manually, removed the ext-pack manually and them uninstall VirtualBox again. Also to make sure I deleted the windows\system32\drivers\VBox*.sys files, deleted the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\VBox* keys from the registry, deleted Oracle from the "Program Files" folder and also removed the advanced firewall rules that were named "Oracle VM something". I even installed the newest version of my network card drivers and I'm still having the problem.

Please, I don't want to reinstall Windows, how can I completely remove VirtualBox and its drivers or solve this????

[noteirak]

From your description, the issue is not coming from Virtualbox, especially if you removed everything...

[fmaste]

From your description, the issue is not coming from Virtualbox, especially if you removed everything...

As soon as I installed VirtualBox the network when down and nobody was able to access the DB running on the server. I restarted and the network was back but intermittent, the old system running over SMB freezes continuously from there.

I also thought I removed everything when I uninstalled but the extension pack and the network adapter were still there. I keep searching and I always found that something else was missing, the registry keys, the firewall rules, etc, I don't know if everything was removed.

[noteirak]

As soon as I installed VirtualBox the network when down

Thats normal, you even have a warning in bold red during the installation that all your network connections will be dropped.

I also thought I removed everything when I uninstalled but the extension pack and the network adapter were still there. I keep searching and I always found that something else was missing, the registry keys, the firewall rules, etc, I don't know if everything was removed.

Well you did a pretty good job at it I think, but only the uninstaller knows what needs to be removed... To me, everyone was removed.
Did you reboot the server?

[fmaste]

As soon as I installed VirtualBox the network when down

Thats normal, you even have a warning in bold red during the installation that all your network connections will be dropped.

Yes, I saw it. Connections drop but never come back and after restarting it was intermittent.

I also thought I removed everything when I uninstalled but the extension pack and the network adapter were still there. I keep searching and I always found that something else was missing, the registry keys, the firewall rules, etc, I don't know if everything was removed.

Well you did a pretty good job at it I think, but only the uninstaller knows what needs to be removed... To me, everyone was removed.
Did you reboot the server?

The uninstaller did nothing, for example the advanced firewall rules were still active after uninstalling. And I reboot and tried again with iperf after every change I made (registry, files, rules. etc)

[noteirak]

I didn't read any other reports of such a behaviour, so this must be very unique to your environment. I would advice to forget Virtualbox for a second and do regular troubleshooting on your network instead.
Maybe Virtualbox unveiled some underlying problem?

[fmaste]

I used the provided Window's utilities to search for known problems, I looked at all the logs, reinstalled the newest oficial drivers, I tried almost everything not VirtualBox related but I'm still having the problem.
I just need to rollback what the VirtualBox installer did, somebody must know how to do it.

[noteirak]

Try reinstalling then uninstall again, but make sure you do this with admin priviledges and that no Virtualbox processes are running.
Other than that, I personally don't know what else you can do...