In VirtualBox, how do I set up host-only virtual machines that can access the Internet?

networking virtualbox virtualization

262,567

Solution 1

I can get the setup I want by setting up two adapters on the vm.

VirtualBox 4.2.12
Ubuntu 12.04 guest

In VirtualBox > Preferences > Network, set up a host-only network.

Mine is called vboxnet0, it is manually configured:
ip 192.168.56.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
no dhcp

VirtualBox network configuration

Then, in the network settings for the virtual machine, set up two adapters:

Adapter 1
host only, vboxnet0

Adapter2
NAT

Boot the virtual machine and log in through the console VirtualBox provides.

Run this to see your adapters:

ls /sys/class/net

In my case the adapters were named eth1 and eth2 (and lo, the loopback interface).

Then, edit your network configuration.

sudoedit /etc/network/interfaces


# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# Host-only interface
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet static
        address         192.168.56.20
        netmask         255.255.255.0
        network         192.168.56.0
        broadcast       192.168.56.255

# NAT interface
auto eth2
iface eth2 inet dhcp

Note that eth1 has no default gateway specified. eth2 will get a default gateway from dhcp.

Update March 2018

See this answer from @Hugo14453 for an updated version that works with Ubuntu 17.10 and newer.

Solution 2

Network configuration has changed in Ubuntu 17.10.1. You now use the netplan config.

I followed this guide here

As a migration of Christian's answer, do the following:

Create a new config file inside of /etc/netplan to hold your host-only adapter config.

e.g sudo nano /etc/netplan/02-netcfg.yaml

Enter the following to configure a static IP of 192.168.56.12 where enp0s3 is the name of your host-only adapter.

network:
    version: 2
    renderer: networkd
    ethernets:
        enp0s3:
            addresses:
                - 192.168.56.12/24
            dhcp4: no

Then run the following two commands:

sudo netplan generate
sudo netplan apply

NAT should work without configuration, run ifconfig to see the result:

enp0s3: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.56.12  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.56.255
        inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe06:6cdd  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether 08:00:27:06:6c:dd  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 252  bytes 23076 (23.0 KB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 208  bytes 30015 (30.0 KB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

enp0s8: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 10.0.3.15  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 10.0.3.255
        inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe4d:a6b8  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether 08:00:27:4d:a6:b8  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 95  bytes 94894 (94.8 KB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 85  bytes 7436 (7.4 KB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

Solution 3

I could solve my problem with a mix of Christian Long solution. I added 2 adapters:

Adapter 1 - NAT

Adapter 2 - host only, vboxnet0

The only diference was in VM's interfaces file:

sudoedit /etc/network/interfaces

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
# NAT
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
# Host only
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp

In VirtualBox Network config I left DHCP checked.

After a VM reboot everything worked fine.

Solution 4

There is another simple way that we don't need to create a new NAT adapter

On the host machine, please add the following iptables rules. This will forward packets through the host and on to the Internet:

sudo iptables -A FORWARD -o eth0 -i vboxnet0 -s 192.168.56.0/24 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW -j ACCEPT 

sudo iptables -A FORWARD -m conntrack --ctstate ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT

sudo iptables -A POSTROUTING -t nat -j MASQUERADE

You will also need to enable IP forwarding on the host by issuing the following command:
```
sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
```

Solution 5

I Just added 2 adapters:

Adapter 1 host only, vboxnet0

Adapter2 NAT

And it works perfect, I can access the virtual machine from the host, and I have internet on the vm.

View more solutions

262,567

Christian Long

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Christian Long over 1 year
In setting up virtual machines with VirtualBox, I often want the following characteristics
- VM has a static IP
- host can access VM without port forwarding
- VM can access the internet
- I can move my laptop from network to network (e.g. from home to office to coffee shop) without worrying about securing or reconfiguring the VM
None of the VirtualBox network connection methods satisfies these requirements on their own.
- NAT
  Requires port forwarding if you want to connect to the VM from the host.
- Host-only
  The VM can not access the internet unless the host is a router.
- Bridged
  Exposes the VM to the network; not portable.
Mojo over 10 years

Now to reach the guest from your host, did you have to add a route and a name in /etc/hosts on the host machine? Your host doesn't have an interface on the 192.168.56.0 net, does it?
Mojo over 10 years

No! VirtualBox creates an interface on the host for that network, for you. (Never mind.)
Christian Long over 10 years

Update: VirtualBox 4.3 introduced a NAT service that looks like it might obviate the need for two interfaces. 6.4. Network Address Translation Service
Umar Farooq Khawaja about 10 years

This works for me, but I want the VMs to have static IP addresses. The minute I do that, Internet stops working. If I set up both with DHCP, it works fine. How do I make the host-only interface get a static IP?
Nabil Kadimi almost 10 years

This helped me a lot, I use Virtualbox for development, and when I'm in my house, everything works correctly since I have the network setup to my likings, the nightmare starts when I move to another network (family, companies...), I have to change websites URLs, delete some systems files, reboot I don't know how many times and the list goes on. This solution doesn't care about your current network which is why I like it...Just plug your PC to any network and focus on your work.
vee over 8 years

For me, I don't need network & broadcast. With it, it doesn't work I don't know why.
Florian almost 8 years

Thanks. Not defining a gateway address for the host-only interface solved my issues.
Jorge Campos over 7 years

Only one that worked. Thanks. +1
Derek Mahar over 7 years

This works only on a Linux host.
Byron Whitlock over 7 years

Perfect. /etc/network/interfaces config was key THANKS!!!!
Joost Döbken over 7 years

I don't have a folder /etc/network
Pere Pages about 7 years

"Note that eth1 has no default gateway specified. eth2 will get a default gateway from dhcp." <-- THIS COMMENT IS THE KEY.
Eduardo Lucio almost 7 years

We need the "dnsmasq" service running. In the link unix.stackexchange.com/a/384187/61742 we have complete information about what was suggested by @Danatela . Thanks!
Danatela almost 7 years

@EduardoLucio please give credits to Long Bui. I just edited this post to make it more readable.
Eduardo Lucio almost 7 years

@Long Bui Thank you for your contribution! Up! Up! Up! Up! Up! Up! =D
Mohd Abdul Mujib over 6 years

Thanks it worked, but I was wondering why does virtualbox only work with this IP range "192.168.56.x" and If I try to set it to "192.168.9.9" it gets the static ip but apache stops responding to requests from the host. while the former ip works just fine. It got me pulling my hairs for so long. I just gave up. :(
Christian Long about 6 years

Thanks! I added an update section to my old answer and linked to this new info.
dangel about 6 years

what IP would the host be given in this situation? (for updating guest firewall rules)
mdpc almost 6 years

WARNING: The location in the VirtualBox utility to change the host-only network information has changed a bit in 5.2.12 (probably 5.2.x)
Dzmitry Prakapenka over 5 years

I have followed you solution, but miss nat support for enp0s8. I have manually added enable dhcp4 for enp0s8 in netplan and finally get both enp0s3 and enp0s8 up. Hope this will help somebody.
baptx almost 3 years

I used this solution also. Unfortunately it will only work for apps using HTTP protocol. For apps like WhatsApp on Android x86, we would need a SOCKS proxy like Dante but I can't get this solution working anymore, using redsocks: android.stackexchange.com/questions/221389/…
baptx almost 3 years

I tried this solution with Android x86 but it will use only one adapter, I thought the first only but it is random. It is using either NAT or Host-only adapter, not both, any idea why? Compared to bridged adapter, NAT has the advantage that it will use my VPN connection configured on my host OS.