Host-only network not accessible

[Sono]

Hi,
I have a problem with host-only networks. When I select the host-only network in a guest machine to be used, the gues os (mostly linux) will boot fine in the end, but during boot it will already take very long to configure the network + after finally booting into the guest, I get two NICs:
eth0: Listing only a IPv6 Adress, which I cannot access/ping
lo

Very long network configuration means, that the guest will display the boot messages "Waiting for network configuration" and a while later "Waiting up to 60 more seconds for network configuration". This does not happen when I select a bridged adapter.
If I select a bridged adapter this does not happen, boot up is faster and eth0 has a typical IPv4 address which I can access from other machines in the network.

I'm running Virtual Box 4.3.6 on a OS X 10.9 Host (MacBook Pro). This does happen whether I install Guest Additions or not. It happens on any Guest OS (most of the times I use Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64 Bit but I also have the problem with e.g. OpenSuse. The problem started occurring after the upgrade to OS X 10.9. So yeah, it is a kind of OS X problem, but I'm still posting here in hope someone knows how to fix this. It is quite annoying, as I'm on the move a lot and not always have WiFi available for my VMs

Thanks!

[socratis]

Go to the VirtualBox Manager (the main application in your host). Go to "Preferences" -> "Network" -> "Host-only Networks" -> select the default "vboxnet0" -> press the "Customize" (screwdriver-like) button -> "DHCP Server" and make sure that it is enabled.

[Sono]

Hi,
thanks.. I activated the DHCP server setting and filled in the necessary infos for the DHCP server. This helps, as for the moment I'm at home and entered my Routers IP as DHCP server which is fine for my LAN at home.

However I'm not sure this really solves my problem. I'm on the move a lot and therefore also booked into various WiFis during the week. So what will happen when I'm in another WiFi with another range of IP adresses + other IP of the DHCP server?

In the past (before Mavericks) I did no config to the host-only-network and it worked right out of the box, it also gave me the same IP for the VM (the one I configured there of course).

[socratis]

for the moment I'm at home and entered my Routers IP as DHCP server which is fine for my LAN at home.

No, no, no... The host-only DHCP server is an independent server built-in your VirtualBox. It should NOT match your actual DHCP server. What you've done is sort of a bridged network. In my setup I have (under Preferences -> Network -> Host-only Networks -> (YourNetwork) -> Settings):

Adapter
Adapter: 192.168.56.1
IPv4 Network Mask: 255.255.255.0
IPv6 Address:
IPv6 Network Mask Length: 0

DHCP Server
Enable Server: Checked
Server Address: 192.168.56.2
Server Mask: 255.255.255.0
Lower Address Bound: 192.168.56.110
Upper Address Bound: 192.168.56.200

[Sono]

Thanks so much. I didn't know the last part with the built in DHCP Server.
Now it works. At least for two of three systems I tested it with, but that is ok, the third one might be broken due to other configuration options.