problem with host-only adapter after upgrade to 4.3.10

[edstevens]

Vbox 4.3.10, r93012, on Windows 7 Home Premium, x-64

A few days ago I upgraded Vbox from 4.2.16 to 4.3.10. Everything seemed to go fine. I believe the problem began when I had cause to reboot my host.

Originally, my vb host-only adapter was configured at 192.168.56.1, net mask 255.255.255.0. This is the default that vb selected on a previous install. I have several guest systems (lab servers) configured with fixed IP address on this adapter (192.168.56.101, etc).

Now I discover the adapter is running on

Code: Select all

Ethernet adapter VirtualBox Host-Only Network:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::98dc:ea7d:7468:12bf%34
   Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.18.191
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Going to the VB console, I select File > Preferences > Network > Host-Only Network. I set the ip address and net mask back to the original. I DE-select “Enable DHCP server”. On selecting “OK” I get the Windows UAC pop-up asking permission to change the system. I'm supposing this is to allow the the adapter reset.

But on completion of the above, a check of 'ipconfig' shows the adapter still at 169.254.18.191. Going back to VB console shows the same.

So, what is going on here? Why did it make the change in the first place, and why does it seem to ignore my attempts to set it back to my original settings?

I had reported this behavior on an earlier upgrade attempt (see viewtopic.php?f=1&t=57427) Was hoping that 4.3 would have addressed it.

[edstevens]

I don't normally approve of bumping a thread, but . . . 10 days with no response at all . . .

[Perryg]

The address shown means that Windows does not see the host-only properly and is assigning an apipa address to it. Changing the addresses usually do not work.
use the preference -> network and the remove icon. Then use the add icon and see if that puts the proper addresses in.

[edstevens]

Ok, it took me a few days to find time to work on this one again.
I tried deleting and re-creating the adapter. No joy.
I tried deleting the adapter, rebooting, creating the adapter. No joy.
I tried turning off the firewall (McAfee), deleting and re-creating the adapter. No joy.

I'd never heard of apipa (no surprise, I'm a dba, not a network guy), but with that lead did a bit of research. Everything I read seems to indicate that Windows will assign an address from that range if a dhcp server is not available. Fair enough, but I can't figure out why a dhcp server wouldn't be available. It appears I don't have any trouble getting a dhcp assigned address from my ISP for my "Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection" (assigned 192.168.1.something). And it seems that previous releases of VBox on this same laptop with the same ISP had no issue getting the expected IP address of 192.168.56.1.

Obviously I *can* work with it like it is. I just have to reconfigure the networking on all my VB client machines. But I've never been the kind of guy who is satisfied with "do this, it works". I want to peel back a few layers and understand "why" so I can add to my toolbox. Perhaps at this point we are drifting away from VBox issues and into general networking. If you feel we are out of scope for this forum I'd be open to suggestion for a better location to explore this.

[Perryg]

I have only seen this issue once myself and that was a long time ago, but I resolved it by deleting the adapter in the preference -> network section and then creating it again using the following information. Be sure that you enable the dhcp server and use the exact address information.

host-only-1.png (25.24 KiB) Viewed 2047 times

host-only-2.png (28.41 KiB) Viewed 2047 times

[edstevens]

That (enabling the DHCP sever config on the host only adapter config) resolved my immediate problem, and gave me leads for further reading. Thank you.