VPN, OS X El Capitan host, Windows 10 Virtualbox guest

[Novel1]

Hi, virtualbox community. I'm a newbie to the forum and to virtualbox so I'm asking forgiveness ahead of time for syntactical or other newbie errors.

I am trying to get a VPN connection set up from a Windows 10 Home Version 1511 environment using Virtualbox V5.022 on an iMac host (OS X El Capitan 10.11.5) to an offsite Radiology Information System (RIS) at a community imaging clinic.

I have utilized the following instruction set provided by the RIS company as follows:
(I have removed the identifiers)

Windows 10 VPN
1. Click on the network/internet icon in the system tray and select Network settings.
2. Choose VPN from the left panel the select “Add a VPN connection” from the right panel
a. VPN Provider: Windows (built-in)
b. Connection Name: XXXXX
c. Server name or address: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
d. VPN type: Point to Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP)
e. Type of sign-in info: username and password
f. Username: XXXXX
g. Password: XXXXX
h. Remember my sign-in info (checked)
3. Save
4. In the search bar start typing in “view network” and select View network connections
5. Right click on your XXXX connection
6. Select >Properties>Networking tab>select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties.
7. Change the radio button from “Obtain DNS server address automatically” to “Use the following DNS server addresses” and input XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
8. Click on Advanced>DNS tab>
9. In the DNS suffix for this connection input: XXX Click OK as many times as you need to save settings.
10. Connect the VPN

However, the VPN will not connect. I get a message that states "A connection to the remote computer coul dnot be established, so the port used for the connection was closed".

Perhaps I'm doing something simple wrong, but I cannot find a relevant entry in this user forum.

Thank you

[BillG]

The default network setting in a vm is NAT, and a PPTP VPN does not usually work from behind NAT. It may not be possible to set this up without some changes to your network. How does the Mac host connect to the Internet?

[Novel1]

Thanks for the reply, BillG.

The Mac host connects to the internet via ethernet to a cable modem. (Shaw here in Canada)

[BillG]

I see. There is no easy solution then.

If it was on a local LAN (such as a home network) I would suggest using bridged mode, but that won't work on a direct Internet connection. It may not work anyway because you would still be behind NAT (but some routers can handle PPTP NAT traversal).

The instructions you followed assume that the machine you are using has a direct connection to the Internet. The Mac does, but the vm does not.

[socratis]

The Mac does, but the vm does not.

Bill, you're the network expert here, but, doesn't using Bridged mode it would seem that the VM is treated the same as the Mac?

[BillG]

Yes it is, but if the host is on a home network behind a NAT router (which it would need to be for bridged mode to work in this case), both host and guest are behind that NAT.

If the router can handle PPTP NAT traversal they can both use PPTP VPN, but if it cannot, neither host or guest can. Most modern routers should do it but it may not be enabled by default. A lot of the literature goes back a long way to when PPTP VPN was included in RRAS.