virtualbox.org

Lou,

How a paid VPN connection works with Vbox NAT will depend on how the VPN connection looks to the software. As long as VirtualBox sees it as a connection which it can share there are no problems. (Some work, some don't.) If it doesn't, there is not much you can do except try to run the vm in bridged mode and set up its own VPN connection.

Like so many things, the theory does not always match what happens in practice. In theory, a VPN connection is a point to point connection which cannot be shared or routed. All sharing or routing should be done on the private LANs at either end of the connection. This is nearly true for a site to site VPN. The endpoints of the VPN link are routers which handle that sort of thing.

Client to server VPNs are a different matter. There are dozens of different versions which are all implemented differently with all sorts of options and it is impossible to generalise. (A bit like soho DSL routers. They all do basically the same job but...).

Bill. I see (aorta).

As I mentioned I know very little about networking in general. When I read about it or hear it discussed I make the same face others do when I try and talk about the nature of consciousness or number theory. Those I can understand.

I do appreciate the explanation though. If you have any interest I am using Private Tunnel.

Lou

loukingjr wrote:@Brainbuster…

...

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

...

PIA is what I used for over a year, when my VM was piggy-backing off my host's ip address.

You mentioned that NAT would explain that year. It seems to me (though my knowledge of networking is very limited as well),
that "Bridged" would explain it. I thought that's what bridged did.

I picked PIA at random. I had a 50-50 chance and I lost.
As I mentioned, with my guests set to NAT, if my host is connected to a VPN server, so are my guests. That's all I really know about VPN.

loukingjr wrote:I picked PIA at random. I had a 50-50 chance and I lost.
As I mentioned, with my guests set to NAT, if my host is connected to a VPN server, so are my guests. That's all I really know about VPN.

Oh, that's how it used to work with me. Once my host connected to the VPN, my guests piggy-backed.

Now my host has my real ip address, and I have to connect to the VPN within any given guest VM
(and the host retains my real ip address while the guest has the gateway address).
I'm on Bridged connection though.