Networking in WIN NT4 VM on OS X host

[artnikjo]

Hello community,

Has somebody managed the access to the host OS X 10.8.5 from the guest VM with WIN NT4 SP6a OS via LAN? This is necessary because VirtualBox does not support the provided share folder feature. Somewhere I've read that only via networking connection this was possible.
I have correctly installed OS WIN NT4 SP1 from the CD NT4 as VM in the VirtualBox 4.3.16 on the host MacBook Pro Retina with OS X 10.8.5 and then run in the VM SP6a.exe in order to upgrade the WIN NT4 onto the latest service pack.
Correctly installed means I did preform tasks in this sequence:
⁃ Creation an empty WIindows NT virtual drive VDI dynamical allocated with the Oracle VirtualBox Manager.
⁃ Adding the WIN NT4 CD copy named NTWKS40D.cdr into the Storage menu for this new empty created VM in the Oracle VirtualBox Manager.
⁃ In Network Adapter menu in the Oracle VirtualBox Manager I chose two adapters, one attached to NAT and the second attached to Host-only Adapter, both with Adapter Type PCnet-Fast III (Am79C973). For the NAT adapter the cable connection was not ticked because only the internal LAN should be established.
⁃ Start the new VM in the Oracle VirtualBox Manager which initiates the setup of the WIN NT 4 SP1.
⁃ During the Wiindows NT-Setup I was asked to choose the kind of internet connection. I chose only the direct Network connection.
⁃ In the next step after starting of searching of network card the AMD PCNET-Family Ethernet-Adapter was found as an appropriate network card and I continued the installation's procedure by choosing afterwards the TCP/IP protocol as IT transfer protocol. With this, the internet components were installed. A massage windows appeared then with the title "AMD PCNET-Family Ethernet-Adapter v3.11" where Full duplex and 10Base T-Connection is possible to choose. I let the standard setting for Full Duplex option and did not set the tick for the 10Base T-connection option. After that I chose the DCHP option after the prompt.
⁃ In the next menu mask the network group name was to put in. I wrote the same name into the provided place as it is used in the host MacBook Pro for the network setting. After clicking to continue, the Networking was finished.
⁃ Et the end of the Windows NT-Setup the confirmation was to read: Windows NT was completely installed.

After the finishing of WIN NT SP1 installation, I've installed at first WIN NT 4 SP6a onto VM and then the VBoxguestAddition onto the so established WIN NT 4 SP6a VM.
At the checking the adapter driver in the C:\WINNT\system32\drivers I find Amdpcn.sys file as the driver for the chosen AMD PCnet FAST III network adapter, for which in the properties menu states that it is 2.45 version.

However, in the window, appeared after the clicking onto the Network Places icon on the desktop in the WIN NT VM all the VMs bounded in the same network group are listed included the host MacBook Pro. With the all VM's can be got access within the WIN NT VM, but not with the host MacBook Pro. After double click onto the host MacBook Pro icon after a while the error message appears: "\\host-name is not available. The network path was not found."
Trying to get the connection to the shared resource of the host MacBook Pro in the WIN XP and in the WIN 7 OS's VMs the host is accessible. There are no problems.
For the check the AMD PCnet driver, I used for the VM with WIN XP OS the same setting for the adapter type in the Oracle VirtualBox Manager, namely AMD PCNET FAST III… for both adapters. To be successful with this driver the TCP/Offload should be "on" in the menu My Computer/properties/hardware/devices/device manager/network adapters/AMD PCNET Family PCI Ethernet Adapter/Advanced. In the XP OS VM the driver pcntpci5.sys is at work.

Question: Is there any other driver for WIN NT4, which is able to manage this task VM based on WIN NT4 SP6a is the obsolete network adapter driver Amdpcn.sys version 2.45 or in the WIN NT case only an additional setting on the host MacBook Pro side has to be undertaken?


I hope somebody has solved this problem and will post the solution into the community.

Best regards
artnikjo

[marty39]

I have the same problem, Windows NT guest on Mac OS X host. My OS X version is now 10.9.5 but I have had the same problem in earlier versions of both VirtualBox and OS X. Please, can someone help?

The guest has three network adapters, configured as NAT, Host-Only and Bridged. It has Internet access. It can ping the host at all three of its IP addresses. It can access the web server on the host at all three IP addresses. The ipconfig /all command shows that all three adapters are getting appropriate IP addresses through DHCP.

It can connect from the guest to all real computers on the network, using both Windows NT Explorer, and NET VIEW and NET USE on the command line, except the Mac host. When I try to connect to the Mac host from the Windows NT Explorer, or Network Neighborhood, I get "\\{Host-name} is not accessible. The network path was not found." NET VIEW without arguments shows the Mac host, but when I try NET VIEW or NET USE with arguments that specify the host or a share on the host, I get "System error 53 has occurred. The network path was not found." And I'm logged in on the guest with the same user name and password as on the Mac host.

From the Mac host it's almost the opposite. I can ping the Windows NT guest with two of its IP addresses but not with the NAT address 10.0.2.15. I can ping the guest by name only if it's entered in /etc/hosts. But it shows by name in Finder (even without an /etc/hosts entry), and when I try to connect to it from Finder I can connect as a registered user with name and password.

The situation is that the Windows NT guest can connect to the Mac host, and to shares on other computers, but not to shares on the host. That suggests that there's something about the Mac, maybe permissions, that's causing the trouble.

Note added in edit: a Windows XP guest can access shares on the Mac host. Windows 9x and Me guests have the same trouble as Windows NT (4.0 SP 6a). Also: I just added the EnablePlainTextPassword DWORD but it didn't help.

Does anybody have any ideas?

[socratis]

a Windows XP guest can access shares on the Mac host. Windows 9x and Me guests have the same trouble as Windows NT (4.0 SP 6a).

First of all, are you sure that Windows XP accesses your Mac share through the "Windows Network" and not via the "VirtualBox Shared Folders"? I just want to make sure. If that's the case, then as you noticed, it's because there are guests where the GuestAdditions are not available (WNT, WMe, W98, etc), so it simply will not work. No workarounds.

Second, the SMB protocol that Mac talks is not 100% compatible with that of WNT4. Don't forget that NT4 came out in 1996 and OSX 10.9 in 2014. There have been a lot of changes between then and now, plus on top of that don't forget that 10.9 switched to SMB2 as their default protocol, therefor freezing/forgetting about SMB.

[marty39]

Thank you, Socratis.

The Windows XP guest can access shares both ways. Specifically, in Windows Explorer, I bring up the Windows network, then the workgroup, and I can access all the computers there. Windows NT doesn't have VirtualBox shared folders. I'm aware of that.

Actually the problem came up before Mac OS X 10.9. But as you say, there have been a lot of changes on the way. Stuff stops working. The reason I need the Windows NT guest is that a useful application stopped working in Windows XP. That's life in the cybersphere.

One of the computers I can access from the Windows NT guest is a real Mac still running Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6). I bought Snow Leopard Server and installed it as a guest (under another virtualization system). I think what you're saying implies that I might be able to reach the Snow Leopard Server guest from the Windows NT guest, and the Snow Leopard Server could have access to the shares on the real OS X host. It's worth a try.