virtualbox.org

I have windows 10 host and linux guest using a bridged adapter so it has its own IP address. Everything works fine but I cannot set port forwarding because the VM does not show up as a device on the router.

Is there any way to port forward from a talktalk router to a server running in a VM?

I have tried adding the VM MAC address manually but it shows as not connected. I have tried setting the port forwarding in virtualbox but this does not seem to do anything.

If I have read correctly, the guest's Bridged network traffic gets sent with the host's MAC address, so routers that rely heavily on MAC address may not work well with Bridged guests.

That router won't let you port forward to a specific IP address?

scottgus1 wrote:If I have read correctly, the guest's Bridged network traffic gets sent with the host's MAC address, so routers that rely heavily on MAC address may not work well with Bridged guests.

That router won't let you port forward to a specific IP address?

So it seems. If I do arp on another computer in the network I can see the host and guest share the same MAC address but have different IP addresses. The router only allows port forwarding to a MAC address.

So how can I route traffic to a server on the bridged machine? Is there some software I can run on the host that does this?

EDIT: I found this and it seems to work. However it is a pain to run separate software and you have to set the IP address manually as this can be different each time....again there is no way on the router to force a fixed IP address because the VM device is invisible. Surely there must be a better way?

https://www.networkactiv.com/AUTAPF.html

Bridging / promiscous mode is not defined in the WLAN specifications. It works in many environments because some drivers and WLAN router software don't follow the specs exactly and Virtualbox also tries working around the problem (which produces the situation we see here).
The only real workaround is to use a cabled connection.

no way on the router to force a fixed IP address

FWIW I have only ever tried to set a fixed IP address on the computer that needs it, in the computer's OS, not from the router. Try setting the IP address in the guest OS itself.

The router only allows port forwarding to a MAC address

Maybe there's a firmware upgrade? Seems limiting to me. Maybe a different router? Or you might be able to put another network card in your PC and attach just the guest to that card.

scottgus1 wrote:

no way on the router to force a fixed IP address

FWIW I have only ever tried to set a fixed IP address on the computer that needs it, in the computer's OS, not from the router. Try setting the IP address in the guest OS itself.

The router only allows port forwarding to a MAC address

Maybe there's a firmware upgrade? Seems limiting to me. Maybe a different router? Or you might be able to put another network card in your PC and attach just the guest to that card.

Setting a fixed IP address won't help. I already have an IP address which works fine. The issue is that the router port forwarding only works on MAC addresses.

A USB network card on my laptop might work. I think I have a spare one somewhere.

rainbow3 wrote:Setting a fixed IP address won't help. I already have an IP address which works fine.

OK, I guess I was thrown off by your statement earlier:

rainbow3 wrote:again there is no way on the router to force a fixed IP address because the VM device is invisible

Thus the suggestion to set the IP in the guest OS. Fixed IP is set, can't set fixed IP, OP info toggling....