Do I need Anti-Virus installed when using a NAT connection?

[CEdw2014]

Hi all,

The problem I am having is with a VirtuaBox machine that has Windows 2012 installed on it. If I install Nortans Antivirus within the VirtualBox machine the performance is really poor and everything runs really slow. If I do not install the Nortans antivirus software within the VitualBox environment everything runs OK and the performance is really good.

The Host machine I am running VirtualBox on is a windows 7 machine and has Bitdefender Total Security 2015 anti-virus installed on it. If the VirtualBox machine uses a NAT connection from the Host machine network card do I still need to install antivirus software within the VirtualBox machine? The reason I ask this is six months ago I was using another VirtualBox machine that did not have Anti-Virus software installed on it. When I was installing some software on the VirtualBox machine the Host machine gave me a warning from Bitdefender that the website I was visiting had malware on the webpage and was not safe.

Many thanks
Colin

[loukingjr]

If BitDefender which is installed on the host warned you the site you were on from the guest wasn't safe, isn't the answer kind of obvious? BitDefender is protecting the host and the guest.

[CEdw2014]

Is the host's anti-virus software protecting the VirtualBox machine when using a NAT connection, or do I need to install anti-virus software on the VirtualBox machine? Do you have any website links that say it is safe to rely on the host's anti-virus software?

[Rootman]

It should protect you from anything that is being pulled from the network connection of the host, although it will likely not warn you on the guest, any AV pop-up warning would have to be brought up on the HOST.

There is a test page BitDefender has on their support site: http://www.bitdefender.com/support/how- ... -1281.html to test their product.

The BitDefender will likely NOT protect you from any files or access by another means, e.g. USB drives, optical disks, encrypted ZIP files with loads, etc.