virtualbox.org

I initially posted this in the Windows Guests forum. It's since been moved or retained here only, to the Windows Host forum, based on interaction with scottgus1 & since a post from socratis.

VirtualBox Version 5.2.22r126460 (Qt5.6.2)
Guest Additions installed: 5.2.22r126460 (Qt5.6.2)
Host: Win10 Home - Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18362.295]
64 bit;
16 GB RAM (15.9 usable)
Guest: Microsoft Windows XP [Home] [Version 5.1.2600] [32? Bit];
RAM: 2 GB;
?=version 2002 service pack 3 indicates it is 32 bit based on research (online: answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-performance/xp-professional-51-2600-service-pack-3-build-2600/3fa237b1-5a15-41e2-9a4b-fff33b59768a) & belief.

VM log file: (as an attachment) - 132KB
"D:\My Documents\Software\VBox - Virtual Machine\Mark'sWindowsXPOS-2019-09-04-13-34-03.log"
NOT ATTACHED - due to size limitation warning ''The file is too big, maximum allowed size is 128KiB.''

VBoxHardening.log: (attached) - 548 KB
"D:\My Documents\Software\VBox - Virtual Machine\Mark'sWindowsXPOS-2019-09-04-13-34-04.HARDENING.log"
NOT ATTACHED - due to size limitation warning ''The file is too big, maximum allowed size is 128KiB.''

Win10 Home Host internet and network file & folder access (using shortcuts, including mapped drives) has been working for about a year. We recently (a couple weeks ago) upgraded our internet to Fiber Optic/1Gbps speed & I decided to try to see if the internet & network would run even faster with the ethernet cable(The host connects to internet & LAN wirelessly). It seemed to be faster, however, I lost XP Guest internet and network file & folder access (using shortcuts, including mapped drives).

Can't seem to find any combination of steps that will cause the internet & network on guest to work again. Tried VM restarts, VBox restarts/power offs. Tried Host restarts & power offs. Tried restarts and power offs on other systems on LAN (where I would want file/folder sharing). Other system has access to my Host & my Guest; my Host can access the other system, but my Guest does not have access to internet or the other system. Tried various changes to the VM's VBox Network settings (going to NAT & back to Bridged Adapter), this time I didn't fool with Name (it's set toe Intel(R) Wireless-AC 9560, which is what's worked over the past year). I don't recall all I've tried there. I didn't try starts & restarts after trying to uncheck & recheck "Cable Connected", but that's never seemed to be fruitful to fix past transient connection issues.

Guest cannot ping http://www.yahoo.net or any LAN device(including the Guest running on a Win7 Host on a Toshiba laptop on my LAN). Win10 Host can ping anything anywhere, including the Guest running on the Win7 Host Toshiba laptop on my LAN, but cannot ping the WinXP Guest (I don't see the Guest on the Host network & don't know what IP to try). Except for internet & network, the Guest has appropriate access & use of Host drives (C & D) & folders from various applications (Windows Explorer, word processor, spreadsheet, etc.).

Because of occasional temporary malfunction of performance of the WinXP Guest network access (though rarely if ever internet access problems), I've read bunches of VirtualBox posts and information & have never had any success in resolving those temporary issues - they've always just gone away eventually. This plugging in & unplugging the ethernet cable into the Host has been the closest I've come to an (a) unresolvable problem that (b) seems to be maybe getting at something near the root of past transient malfunctions. The one thing that I think might be something that has temporarily caused, or persistently fixed, the issues is shutting down my system to go to a remote office (where I have no internet or network access) and returning home to my LAN. This last "one thing" may be incorrect, because the problem is too infrequent and transient for me to be ready for it to occur.

By the way (Socratis), these are the commands & results of some pings:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Mark>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration


C:\Documents and Settings\Mark>ping http://www.yahoo.com
Ping request could not find host http://www.yahoo.com. Please check the name and try again.

C:\Documents and Settings\Mark>ping download.virtualbox.org
Ping request could not find host download.virtualbox.org. Please check the name and try again.

C:\Documents and Settings\Mark>

Logs fit when they're zipped. Also, please post the guest's .vbox file, from in the guest folder, zipped. These will help us see what the guest's network settings are.

Once we get a log and the .vbox file we can take it nice and slow, there's been a lot of thrashing.

Bridged does not always work with wi-fi but Bridged should work with wired ethernet. Bridged does require you to Bridge to a network adapter that has a connected network. You need to pick the connected adapter's name in the drop down.

Nat should work with any network. No need to pick an adapter name.

XP itself is losing (has lost?) it's ability to be online, and since it is no longer secure it shouldn't be online. Successful ping to 8.8.8.8 will demonstrate internet presence in the guest.

XP only has the one way (SMB1) to access shared folders that was abused by WannaCry. Windows 10 now does not use SMB1 anymore so XP and 10 cannot access each others' shared folders, unless you turn SMB1 back on in 10, assuming it is still able to be turned back on.

Thanks for the idea. I am sorry I didn't review my past posts from many months (years?) earlier, because I think I did use zipped files once before. --- Logs & *.vbox attached.

". . . Bridged should work with wired ethernet.": I'd rather stick w/ what has worked. I wish I hadn't been curious about the ethernet connection.
"Bridged does require you to Bridge to a network adapter that has a connected network. You need to pick the connected adapter's name in the drop down." Presumably you'll see what I've got in the log files, but just in case: Network; Adapter 1; Bridged Adapter Intel(R) Wireless-AC 9560; Advanced; Adapter Type (in grey) PCnet-FAST III (Am79C973); Promiscuous Mode: Allow All; Mac Address (in grey--and I once tried messing with that & I don't have any hope of getting that to work anymore) 080027916F33; Cable Connected is checked; Port Forwarding is grey.

"Nat should work with any network. No need to pick an adapter name." I tried "NAT" & that didn't work, but I spent very little time on it, because I was principally using it just as a toggle to try to see if going to it & back to the Bridge would cause some kind of reset (which may make no sense at all, I'm just floundering -- and thrashing). My WiFi connection is pretty fast. I would be interested in the ethernet cable on the host, but I don't need to buy myself anymore time messing about on the computer right now. The Windows 10 & Windows 7 LAN connection is rather stable at the moment & it's a colossal headache & time burning monster to even touch that issue.

"XP itself is losing (has lost?) it's ability to be online, and since it is no longer secure it shouldn't be online. Successful ping to 8.8.8.8 will demonstrate internet presence in the guest."
____________Result: Pinging 8.8.8.8 with 32 bytes of data:
____________Destination host unreachable.

"XP only has the one way (SMB1) . . . . XP and 10 cannot access each others' shared folders, unless you turn SMB1 back on in 10 . . . . " While this is both incomprehensible to me and scary, it does not seem to be an issue. I've got no functionality problems except that plugging in and unplugging the ethernet cable messed up the Guest networking access over the LAN. It does not seem to have affected the virtual networking between the host and guest with regard to file & printer sharing (which would be a disaster, to be sure).

Your guest is Bridged to the "Intel(R) Wireless-AC 9560" host wi-fi adapter. I don't see anything in the logs that looks egregious, but others might.

Switching to a wired network will not, in and of itself, cause a guest to lose network. (You would have to change the adapter the guest is Bridged to, though, since wired and w-fi use different adapters on the host PC.) In fact, unless you have several networks in your house, both the wi-fi and wired come from the same router and so are on the same network.

Markm wrote:I tried "NAT" & that didn't work, but I spent very little time on it, because I was principally using it just as a toggle to try to see if going to it & back to the Bridge would cause some kind of reset

It may take at least a minute for the guest OS to recognize it is on a different network, as well as a possible guest reboot.

Markm wrote:We recently...upgraded our internet to Fiber Optic/1Gbps speed...I lost XP Guest internet and network file & folder access (using shortcuts, including mapped drives).

I'm leaning toward this being the problem. Did you change your wi-fi router?

Please open a command prompt in both the 10 host OS and the XP guest OS and enter this command on each command prompt:

ipconfig /all

Please copy & paste each command output, with a label which is which, to your next post.

I'm applying outline numbering to text here to, hopefully, facilitate your reference to any reply text herein (by letter & number of the relevant reply) in cases where it might work better than simply quoting text in the reply.

A.
1. "It may take at least a minute for the guest OS to recognize it is on a different network, as well as a possible guest reboot."
2. Right.
3. My concern isn't w/ immediate network access, it's with network access after 5-20 minutes.

B. 1. "I'm leaning toward this being the problem. Did you change your wi-fi router?"
2. The Wi-Fi router began working (as did all the network connections, such as internet & file & printer sharing) on about 2019 0709.
3. The fiber optic began working (as did all the network connections, such as internet & file & printer sharing) on or about 2019 0814.
4. The XPVM Shortcuts on the W10 Host stopped working on 2019 0903. I think after disconnecting the ethernet cable (at perhaps or after 2pm that day) and going back to the default WiFi.
5. QED, I don't think it's the router or the fiber optic upgrade.
6. However, for trouble shooting purposes, I just a few minutes ago unplugged the older router (which I have been using downstairs basically as a switch for the old downstairs Win7Pro Toshiba A665 (to be distinguished from the upstairs Win7Pro Toshiba Satellite 55 ("TS55") system that is the one to which my Win10 Guest XPVM has no network access).
7. I'm hypothesizing that my Win10Hosted XPVM Guest network access may still be through the old router's wireless.
8. However, if #6 is true, the Win109Hosed XPVM network should still be working (except for the fact that I just unplugged it about 10 minutes ago, so it has no wireless signal anymore).
9. By the way, the new router (an EA7300) (in case this shows up in any log files or other data I provide, is identified on the network as Linksys08303_5GHZ, Linksys08303_2.4GHZ, Linksys08303_5GHZ-guest, Linksys08303_2.4GHZ-guest and the active connection for the Win10Host is Linksys08303_5GHZ.
10. The old Linksys (an E4200) was shown on the network as MF4224 and MF4205, reflecting, respectively 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.

C.
1."ipconfig /all" (Internet Protocol Configuration data).
2. as follows with exact version numbers included as part of the command terminal screen:
Win10Host: Win10Guest(XPVM) 3. I think it's fair to describe the XPVM Guest's network connection as being completely broken, except (if this relates to the Guest's "network connection", which it may not; I simply don't understand this) for the fact that shortcuts on the Guest desktop to drive "D:" on the Host, which have been mapped on the Guest as drive "F:" all work.
4. So, for example, in Guest Windows Explorer, one of the shared drives in the list under "My Computer" is "d_drive on 'Vboxsvr' (F:)" and using that window in the Guest's Windows Explorer screen allows me to browse all the contents of the Host drive "d:".

D.
1. Trivia or evidence of effort in testing the network settings: One of my tests was to obtain and use the MAC address from the WiFi device in my Win10 host (ASUS ROG GL703GE).
2. I called ASUS, and then Intel I think, and tried that in the Advanced Network settings with the Bridged adapter. It didn't help, so I went back to what I had & it eventually worked again, though now, with what I think was the plugging in, and then unplugging, of the ethernet cable, the presenting issue took place.
3. I don't recall the WiFi adapter MAC address now, but I probably have it documented somewhere.
4. The reason I tried this was an article I read in which it was stated something about virtualbox having to insert a return packet address in all incoming network traffic routed through the host adapter to the guest or something like that.
5. I didn't understand it and am probably significantly mis-communicating the issue the description.

Hmm, that XP guest response to 'ipconfig' is really weird. Something has definitely gone south on that XP OS. I would not have expected that a simple wired vs wifi change would cause that. OS's typically can respond to network changes pretty much plug-n-play since WIndows 2000 I think, definitely in XP days.

The shortcuts still working despite no network is expected, now that we know you're using \\vboxsvr. That means you're using Guest Additions Shared Folders, which requires no network at all. It is a completely independent channel into the guest for file transfer only.

As a "check Virtualbox" step, make a new guest. If you still have the install disc for XP, try installing another XP guest. If not, try downloading Linux Ubuntu or Mint. If this new guest keeps network access, then your Virtualbox is working and the problem resides in the XP guest OS. Merely changing the network from wi-fi to wired would not have caused the XP guest to go bad.

A. I'm wondering if you're right about the new Router. 1. Maybe, with my older router plugged in downstairs with a cable was still sending out a WiFi signal (which it does to allow the downstairs Win7 Toshiba A665 system to connect via Wi-Fi if the cable down there is disconnected--which it is if we have vistor & don't want it running through the living room) the Win10Host was using the old router for WiFi on the LAN and the XPVMGuest shortcuts to LAN resources (like the upstairs Win7Pro Toshiba Satellite S55 ("TS5")) were also depending on a WiFi connection to the old Router. 2. So, when I disconnected the Host cable, it reconnected wirelessly (again) to the modem & LAN but this time through the NEW upstairs router(new being LinksysEA7300 with network name "Linksys083303_5GHz" or "*_2.4GHz", old being LinksysE4200 with network name "MF4224" or "MF4205"). 3. The refreshed LAN connection by the host therefore changed connection information that the Win10XPVM Guest doesn't recognize, so the Guest could no longer see the internet or LAN resources. 4. I rejected your earlier hypothesis about the new router being the problem, but 5. what I didn't think of was that I do have reason to believe the Host WiFi was might have been connecting (inexplicably, I'd say since I have to think it's a worse connection) to the MF4224 or MF4205 which could be the downstairs router. 6. It's clearly not doing that now (not only is the Linksys08303_5GHZ connection the active connection, but the downstairs router, which may be the only device emanating the MF4224 & MF4205 connection names is unplugged now.

Notably, before your reply, I somehow found I have "\\Vboxsvr\l_drive" in my Windows Explorer. I can't seem to add anything to my "\\Vboxsvr" yet (or don't know how), but since I have mapped the TS55 c: drive to "L:" on the host, the XPVMGuest seems able to link to the Host L: drive through \\Vboxsvr\ using the "\\Vboxsvr\l_drive" path. So, if I can figure out how to get the Host's other mapped drives linked to the XPVMGuest through its "\\Vboxsvr\" path, I'll have those. This doesn't solve the internet connection or sharing a printer on the TS55, but maybe it suggests something else to you.

"As a "check Virtualbox" step, make a new guest. If you still have the install disc for XP, try installing another XP guest. "
I have the disk somewhere, but may have trouble finding it. More significantly, my Win10 Host does not have a disk drive, only USB ports.

If I can get the mapped drives linked into the \\vboxsvr I've got that addressed. The internet connection's more important than this, however.

The order of importance for me on the Guest is XPVM Guest LAN use of (1) host drives (not a problem) (2) internet (the priority problem now) (3) TS55 files & folders (looking like that's working out) (4) TS55 external drives (will try that next) (5) TS55 printer (will try that last).

Does anything above give you any other hypothetical solutions or tests not already suggested?

I'm seeing the XP install & creation of other VMS as something I don't have time to try right now (or for several days). I also doubt I need to solve the Guest internet access for a bit either--it just might be good to solve soonest.

The purpose of the new test guest would be to test internet access in a guest. You would set the new guest to have the same network connection as the XP guest in the guest Network settings. If the new guest has internet access and the XP does not, then the problem reside inside the XP guest OS. (The lack of output from "ipconfig /all" in the XP guest strongly supports a problem within the XP guest to me.)

You can forget about \\vboxsvr, it is implemented through Guest Additions Shared Folders, as mentioned before. It does not require a network and is not contributing to or interfering with your guest's internet connection. To add or alter what things you see in \\vboxsvr, see the Virtualbox help manual, section 4.3. Guest Additions has nothing to do with your guest's network or internet connection problem.

You don't need a physical CD drive on the PC to install a new guest. You can download an install ISO file for Linux, and use the ISO file in a new guest's virtual CD drive. See the manual, section 1.9.1.

You can also try to troubleshoot the XP guest as if it is a real PC. Try googling "XP ipconfig shows nothing".

A really small, ready-to-run Linux guest would be "DSL"
Here's the link to the ISO: http://distro.ibiblio.org/damnsmall/rel ... 11.rc1.iso
Start a new guest with the New Guest Wizard. Type DSL in as the name, and accept all the wizard defaults. When you start the guest, a box will ask you to find the ISO file. Browse to where it downloaded, then let the guest boot. (You may have to hit Enter when the penguin shows.) There's a Firefox browser in it on the taskbar at the bottom of the guest window. Try to browse the internet. Ignore certificate errors, the browser is probably old. Certificate errors come from data coming through the internet anyway, so if you get them the internet is working. To quit the guest, type the right-Ctrl key to release the mouse from the guest window and then just close & power-off the DSL guest.

If you get internet or certificate errors, then your Virtualbox is working and the problem resides in the XP guest OS. The timing of the network glitch and your tests with wired ethernet are most likely a coincidence.

DSL worked. I was able to browse. Unable to successfully ping any sites from terminal, but I've not used Linux much & not in a long time. It wanted to know if I was root/a root & that stumped me--I didn't know how to confirm or move to a root directory/position/or whatever.

You can also try to troubleshoot the XP guest as if it is a real PC. Try googling "XP ipconfig shows nothing".

Virtualbox.org, be advised: scottgus1 is a steely-eyed missile man.

At https://www.techsupportforum.com/forums ... 25092.html I found this: Go to Start/Run and type devmgmt.msc and hit enter. In the Device Manager, is there a yellow mark next to Network Adapters? If so, you will need to download the driver . . .

My specific adapter in the submenu had a red X on the icon, so I only had to RtClick & "Enable" it. I haven't restarted, etc., yet, but the internet and the drive mapping & network browsing began working immediately.

THANK YOU!

P.S. The original “steely-eyed missile man” was John Aaron an Apollo 12 flight controller. He provided a simple resolution of a baffling electronic instrument problem that would have terminated the mission immediately after lift-off.