Can connect to internet in XP guest, but not VPN.

[Brainbuster]

My host is a Windows 8 laptop (I'm using Classic Shell so that everything appears as Windows 7...but the laptop is actually Windows 8 ).

Everything was working perfectly until Windows updated itself and deleted my user account, along with all my settings and the VM.

Eventually I found the VM, but now it's got a critical error. VBox said to come here and post the "contents" of the log file. But I don't know
how to even open the file.

In the meantime, I've created another Windows XP Guest VM.
However, I cannot connect to my VPN (Torguard) from within the XP Guest.

My host shows my public ip address as the VPN's gateway, but inside the VM XP Guest, I connect and my public ip address is still my real ip address.

My network settings are: Bridged Adapter
Realtek
Cable connected
Allow all VMs
Adapter Type: PCnet-PCI II

[mpack]

It would help if you would be explicit about error messages seen. "a critical error" doesn't really tell us much.

And what was the VirtualBox version? Did your repairs involve installing a new version of VirtualBox?

I suspect that you have an error, not a critical error. I suspect that you have fallen foul of the extra security added to VirtualBox since 4.3.14, which is known to take exception to unsigned/hacked theme DLLs that inject themselves into the VBox execution space. Your solutions would be to revert to VirtualBox 4.3.12, or try self signing the offending DLLs.

[Brainbuster]

Thank you for your reply.

I took some screenshots that I hope will be helpful.

Because of what happened to the old machine that used to work perfectly (error),
I upgraded to the latest VirtualBox -- 4.3.26 r98988


The reason I'm trying to fix that old machine is because VPN worked on it.

On the new machine I created, the internet connects, but after I turn on my VPN,
only my host's public ip address changes; while my guest machine's ip address remains the same.

[Brainbuster]

I just uninstalled version 4.3.26 and installed VirtualBox 4.3.12.
Same issue. Internet connectivity is good...except that when my host connects to the VPN,
and check my public ip from my host, it's changed; but my guest public ip is still the same.

[mpack]

I will need to see the log file from a crash session.

Following a session in which you've seen the "Guru Meditation", first make sure the VM is closed down. Then right click the VM in the GUI. Select "Show Log". Save "VBox.log" to a file. Compress that file and attach it to a message here. Make sure the VM is fully shut down before taking a log.

Don't forget to zip the file before posting.

[Brainbuster]

Great, thank you!

Attached is the zip of 3 logs (for the same VM).

[loukingjr]

You have 4GB RAM assigned to the guest and your host only has 4GB.

00:00:02.582012 Host RAM: 3979MB total, 1409MB available
00:00:03.239233 RamSize <integer> = 0x0000000100000000 (4 294 967 296, 4 GB)

00:00:40.312167 Console: VM runtime error: fatal=false, errorID=HostMemoryLow message="Unable to allocate and lock memory. The virtual machine will be paused. Please close applications to free up memory or close the VM"

Try setting the guest to 1GB
You also have the template set as Windows XP (64bit) which is rare and you probably don't have.

[Brainbuster]

Thank you! It works now!

However, the internet does not work any more. Here's the screen shot:

...

UPDATE

I did some searching and found another thread and found the answer to the above, a solution that fixed the internet.
The solution was to change the adapter from whatever it was to PCNet Fast III... which is the default for XP.

Now the VM is up and running (thank you all), and the internet works.
However, I get the same problem I experience on the new VM I created to replace this one.

The internet works, but it still does not connect through my VPN; even though my host computer is connected to the VPN
and when I check my public ip address from the host, it will show my VPN gateway ip address--but the guest still shows my home address.

[Brainbuster]

Any ideas why my vpn connection works only on the host but not within the guest machine?

[BillG]

How are you going about this? A VPN connection cannot usually be shared to another machine, real or virtual.

How does the host connect to the Internet? Are you on a local LAN or does the host connect directly to the Internet?

[Brainbuster]

How are you going about this? A VPN connection cannot usually be shared to another machine, real or virtual.

How does the host connect to the Internet? Are you on a local LAN or does the host connect directly to the Internet?

I'm not on a LAN. I'm on my laptop, which is wirelessly connected to my router, which is connected (via cable) to my modem,
which is connected to the cable in the floor. However, I'm pretty sure my basic setup is not the problem,
since the problem didn't exist for many months, and now it exists.

For over a year, I've had no trouble connecting to VPN (in the host), then
getting on the VM and the VM is connected to through the same VPN.

The VM and host have shared the same public ip address, whether connected to VPN or not.

Recently, however, this has not been the case.
I actually have 2 VPN's now-- Torguard and PIA. Both are the same, in that only the host can connect to the VPN,
whereas the guest machines seem not to know about the VPN connection.

[BillG]

I find it hard to believe that a setup like that ever worked. Two machines cannot share the same IP, whether they are physical or virtual. And if you are connected by VPN, you should see a private IP, not a public one.

A VPN is a Virtual Private Network, which allows privately addressed machines to communicate by tunnelling the private addresses through the public addressed Internet. Both the VPN client and the target machine should have private IPs, which are not seen by the Internet routers because the packet is encapsulated and encrypted. Only the wrapper of the packet has a public IP.

[Brainbuster]

Ok, well it was working fine for at least a year.
I opened the VM, turned on my VPN from the host,
and when I checked my ip address at a website such as ipmarker.com,
the VM's web browser showed the VPN gateway ip address.

But now that you've taught me that this is unusual,
maybe I had my setup just right for it to work, and after an update or something,
a dial was changed so that it's back to regular.

In this case, maybe if I download the VPN program within the VM,
and then within the VM, connect to my VPN!
Maybe that will work, and I'm going to try to test that right now.

(what I was doing before was I downloaded the VPN program on my host machine, connected on my host,
and then went into the VM and wanted it to connect in the same tunnel).

[Brainbuster]

It worked!

I did everything within the VM; i.e., I downloaded the VPN program (within the VM, onto the VM),
and then started the VPN from within the VM. That worked.

[loukingjr]

@Brainbuster…

FWIW I use a paid VPN service. With all my guests set to NAT, connecting to the service on my host behaves just as you described yours did for a year. Any guest or multiple guests I open connect to the service and have the same Public IP as the host. I believe the Tor browser does something similar. Uses a proxy to connect to their network then any guest set to NAT would also connect to the Tor network.

As to why yours stopped working I can only surmise adding PIA fouled something up.

My knowledge of networking is very limited so the details could be off.