WiFi Won't Work on Windows XP

[Joel Bob]

I'm running Windows 10 Home, and I use VirtualBox version 6.0.18. For some reason for the longest time I've never been able to use WiFi on any virtual machine, but I'm focusing on Windows XP because I'm trying to use it. I've watched so many tutorials telling me the same thing; download some Intel driver, put it on a shared folder, and install it on Windows XP. I've tried this so many times and it has never worked. What can I do?

[scottgus1]

If you want the XP guest OS itself to see a Wi-Fi connection, you must buy an XP-compatible USB Wi-Fi adapter and use Virtualbox USB filters and USB basics and troubleshooting to insert the adapter into the guest directly.

All of Virtualbox's network cards are wired Ethernet cards. If you use a Virtualbox network to connect to your host PC's Wi-Fi connection, the guest will not see Wi-Fi, only wired Ethernet. There are no drivers that you can install in XP to make a Virtualbox network look like Wi-Fi.

Virtualbox Bridged may not always work with a Wifi adapter, due to strict implementation of the Wifi protocols by either the wifi adapter driver or the access point firmware. Technically Wifi cannot Bridge, but some combinations of wifi adapter drivers and access point firmware implement these protocols in a lax fashion so Bridged can squeeze through. If it works where you are, good. If not, use NAT.

Also, XP's built-in web browsers are way too old and incompatible with modern internet. Successfully pinging Google's DNS server at 8.8.8.8, for example, will test if an internet connection is present.