virtualbox.org

I am working on an assignment for class where I need to connect to a Windows 7 guest OS running on VirtualBox through remote desktop connection. I have the virtualbox booted up, it has networking with internet access, and remote access is enabled with the group (Everyone) added to the list. I used ipconfig to obtain the ip address and entered in the correct information on my host computer (Windows 8.1) in remote desktop connection, but keep getting the same error stating that it can't connect because the computer does not have remote access enabled, is turned off, or is not available on the network.

My instructor hasn't been able to help me and I am out of ideas.

Virtualbox can be set up so Microsoft Remote Desktop into the guest will work or it won't. Depends on the networking style used. See section 6 of the manual.

If your network card in the Virtualbox GUI guest Settings, Network section, is set to NAT, you will not be able to remote into the guest from the host. The ip address in a NAT guest defaults to 10.0.2.something. You can't use NAT if you want to Microsoft Remote Desktop into the guest. (you actually might be able to but it would take a lot of configuration and there's easier ways.)

"Internal" networking also won't work. Internal gives a completely private network to the guest that does not attach to the host at all.

The easiest way to get the network set up is to use Bridged. Then the guest appears to be another PC on the host's network. The guest would get an ip address in the host's network address range from the DHCP server on the host's network. Full network between the host, all the networked PCs, the internet and the guest is possible. Keep in mind that if you're setting up something with heavy effect on a network of PCs, like a domain controller, Bridged would allow the domain controller guest out onto the host's network. Also, Bridged doesn't always work on wi-fi adapters due to limitations in the wi-fi adapter drivers or the network router firmware. Your teacher may not allow Bridged if your host is allowed on the school network.

The last one is Host-only. It's an Internal network with a private connection to the host. It installs a virtual adapter on the host and has a private DHCP server defaulting to 192.168.56.### You can see the info on this network by opening the Virtualbox GUI, then File -> Preferences -> Network, and mouse over the Virtualbox Host-Only Network shown. Your guest would get an IP address from the Host-Only DHCP server or you can set a static IP address in the range the Host-Only network uses. You can attach multiple guests to the host-only network to have them all see each other, or make new host-only networks for each guest to the host by itself privately, or a mix of the two scenarios. The guests can't see the internet but can see the host, and you should be able to Microsoft Remote Desktop into it. Once you set your guest to allow Remote Desktop (Windows guests at least require a password-protected account, if I remember correctly) and find out what ip address to use, just put in that ip address on the RD client on your host and you're in!