Configuring bridging in Virtual Box to enable access from other computers in network

Question

I have a Win XP installed on Virtual Box, and as suggested in different posts, i have chosen the bridged mode. When i look at the router logs, i can see that an ip address has been given to the VM and when i check for the internet connection, everything is fine.

The problem arises, when i try to ping the VM from the host machine, and a different machine in the network. For both of them, no packets are received. The only thing that works is pinging the router and other machines in the network from inside the VM.

So what might be the issue?

EDIT: I have tested this a bit more, and i have come to this conclusion: i cannot ping the machine from anywhere, even the host machine. I can ping everyone and have an internet connection in the guest machine. This does sound like a NAT configuration to me, but i have picked bridged in the VirtualBox networking options.

More info: The VirtualBox version is 4.0.8 r71778 running on Windows 7 Home Premium SP1

IP config guest:
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.145
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

IP config host:
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::3db1:e5ee:d5ae:7548%10
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.147
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

When i release/renew i do get a succefull ip - same .145 (i reserved the ip in the router settings)

EDIT: Since i have solved the problem by enabling ICMP ping packets in the guest machine, i would like to know one more thing: If ICMP is blocked, how can i know that a machine is accessible?

Solution 1

Usually when this happens it's a firewall problem (in the guest machine). By default, the Windows firewall is set up to block incoming ICMP requests, so be sure to manually allow them.

If you don't know how to do it, here's a guide to allow incoming ICMP requests in Windows XP.

Solution 2

I answered similar one in this post. Following is a modified quote.

Turn Firewall

Check your desktop firewall, try turn off completely for testing purposes.

Setup Firewall

It is possible related to public/work settings if it is a windows firewall, which allow all LAN connection but refuse WAN connection, or even both. Or only out going connection but no incoming connection.

On hosting machine, in file explorer, go to

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Windows Firewall\Allowed apps

The above path is for Windows 8, should be similar/same for Windows 7.

Look for application name (eg. Virtual Box is "Oracle VM VirtualBox"). There are 3 check boxes for the application, check mark them all, restart your app and it should work.

Comments

[tombull89]

What's the IP of the host machine, and the ip of the guest? What happens if you do a ipconfig /release and then ipconfig /renew in the guest VM?

[n00b]

Q: how can i know that a machine is accessible? A: turn it on the vrdp service virtualbox.org/manual/ch07.html#idp6172256

[Bartlomiej Lewandowski]

turning off the firewall did not help, i did a wireshark sniff on the wired interface, but i cannot find any packets ping packets going through at all, it might be a router thing maybe.

[John Siu]

(1) Does the host has internet access or other stuff on the network? (2) Can the host ping other machine on the same network? (3) Can host and guest ping each other? (4) Try the "Setup Firewall" method.

[Bartlomiej Lewandowski]

I have answered most of these questions in my question: Once again: 1. The host has access to internet and other machines on the network. 2. The host can ping everyone accept the guest machine. 3. The guest machine has access to internet and can ping everyone in the network.

[John Siu]

Is there firewall running within XP(the guest machine)?

[Bartlomiej Lewandowski]

yes, i am trying to set up a normal user machine, to see the vulnerabilities of such a poor setup. So everything has to be kept default.

[Bartlomiej Lewandowski]

by doing what user130 suggested, i can now ping the guest machine.

[John Siu]

LOL, blinded by words and missed the simple thing, should include guest machine firewall in the testing :D