dhcp server stops working?

[vmfan]

Hi,

Just downloaded VirtualBox 4.3.10, maybe a week ago. Trying to set up two Windows 7 x64 Ultimate guests on an internal network and failing hopelessly.

Tried turning off the firewall -- nothing doing.

The thing that puzzles me the most is -- my problems seem inconsistent. Once I even had the communication established (ping answered) -- but, as soon as I repeated the ping, it failed again. Below is a log of how one ping command at least gets the machine name resolved to the correct IP address -- and the very next minute it says could not find host!

I must admit to complete ignorance in matters networking. When I tried to configure my guests to have a static IP address, I was stumped by the requirement to enter DNS server addresses...

Can somebody help out?

Thanks!

n$ VBoxManage list dhcpservers
NetworkName: tfsnet
IP: 192.168.66.1
NetworkMask: 255.255.255.0
lowerIPAddress: 192.168.66.101
upperIPAddress: 192.168.66.254
Enabled: Yes

n$ VBoxManage list intnets
Name: tfsnet

C:\Windows\system32>ping tfs

Pinging tfs [192.168.66.101] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 192.168.66.101:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

C:\Windows\system32>ping 192.168.66.101

Pinging 192.168.66.101 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 192.168.66.101:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

C:\Windows\system32>ping tfs
Ping request could not find host tfs. Please check the name and try again.

C:\Windows\system32>ping 192.168.66.101

Pinging 192.168.66.101 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 192.168.66.101:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

C:\Windows\system32>ping tfs
Ping request could not find host tfs. Please check the name and try again.

[socratis]

Trying to set up two Windows 7 x64 Ultimate guests on an internal network

When you say internal network do you mean that the network adapters are "Attached to: Internal Network" with "Name: tfsnet"? If so, then run "ipconfig" in the two guests. Chances are that you'll get 192.168.66.101 and 192.168.66.102. Then from the .101 ping the .102 and vice versa. And make sure you don't have any firewall blocking ICMP traffic.

"tfsnet" is not the default for VirtualBox. You can create an IntNet as long as you type a name. But, as far as I know, you can only change an IntNet via the "VBoxManage" command. Did you experiment with it at all? Or you left it with the defaults? Gut feeling; you must have, otherwise you wouldn't get the .66. address, neither the DHCP server enabled.

As for the name resolution, this is a Windows-networking question, not a VirtualBox one. I've never had good luck with that from the get-go, and it's been too long to remember the exact steps to make it work. Searching a WinNet forum should help you out.

[Perryg]

tfs is what we call a friendly name. This however requires that you run your own DNS server most of the time. You can work around this requirement by placing the friendly name and IP address in the hosts file on each guest and host.
A Google for how will give you the complete answer.

[vmfan]

Thank you, socratis and Perryg, for your guidance. Finally got it working, and the correct answer was -- I had disabled the wrong networks in the firewall. As soon as I disabled the public network, all was well. Thanks again!