Virtual Box Bridged Mode - Strange Issue

[Tripkebab]

Hi All,

I've come across an odd problem. I have a Virtual Box running on my HTPC, the guest OS is running in Bridged mode, which has previously and still should be treated by the router as a completly seperate device. With it's own IP and its own MAC address. The router shouldnt know that the Guest OS is connecting though the Host.

But it does! (see attache screens)

Before this issue started I assigned both devices static IP's within the router config. Both devices are still assigned the correct static IP's when connecting to the router. The internet connection is sometimes dropped on the Guest and this can only be resolved by a router restart.

This is causing a couple of problems.

1. I can't view both devices in the router interface.
2. I can't select the device from the port forwarding drop down. The ports are still specified however as the port forward was setup prior to this issue occouring.
2. The device that is showing is displayed incorrectly. 192.168.0.4 is actually named HTPC. The guest OS is called HTPC-Downloads.
3. I can no longer connect to the guest OS via port forwarding (from outside the network). RDP, Pulseway etc no longer work.

I've explored all options around the issue being related to Virtual Box and have come out empty handed which only leaves the router configuration/bug.

Router is running 378.52_2

Any ideas?

 

[RMerlin]

Make sure it's really bridged. My Virtualbox and VMPlayer VMs always appeared as totally separate clients, with their own MACs here. The screenshot you posted seem to indicate it's NATed rather.

 

[Tripkebab]

Also my first assumption.

I've checked both computers, both have unique MAC addresses.

Additionally as DHCP is assigning the correct IP to both Host and Guest it indicates its reading the mac addresses correctly on both machines at least when it comes to assigning IP's. To test this I changed the MAC address on the Guest OS and the correct IP was no longer assigned.

 

[Tripkebab]

I've upgraded to the latest firmware and port forwarding seems to be working fine over the internet now.

However I'm still getting the display issue in the client status page and DHCP (port forwarding dropdown)

Seems like a bug to me, if the routers reading the MAC addresses and assigning correct IP via DHCP it should be able to display the separate devices.

 

[Tripkebab]

Also looking in DHCP leases system log both of them are showing up correctly.

0d 23h 46m 20s 48:5A:B6:02:B3:C1 192.168.0.208 GBLT007382
0d 23h 43m 6s 08:00:27:25:6B:BE 192.168.0.9 HTPC-DOWNLOADS
0d 23h 46m 44s CC:3A:61:56:B1:EF 192.168.0.11 android-1220ba746a1daa67
0d 23h 46m 38s E0:B9:A5:1D:88:86 192.168.0.4 HTPC
0d 23h 40m 38s F0:4F:7C:6D:0C:69 192.168.0.199 kindle-5bd293896
0d 23h 46m 51s 1C:87:2C:B6:2A:13 192.168.0.157 Tripkebab


But at the same time it's not showing up in the wireless log.

Wireless 2.4 GHz
SSID: Bowaves Mode: AP
RSSI: 0 dBm SNR: 0 dB Noise: -92 dBm Channel: 1 BSSID: BC:EE:7B:6E:C7:E8
MAC IP Name RSSI Rx / Tx Rate Connected Flags
E8:50:8B:801:E0 192.168.0.85 -63 dBm 24 / 192 Mbps 0:05:29 PS AU
E0:B9:A5:1D:88:86 192.168.0.4 HTPC -64 dBm 65 / 65 Mbps 0:17:42 TAU


Wireless 5 GHz
SSID: Bowaves (Fast) Mode: AP
RSSI: 0 dBm SNR: 0 dB Noise: -92 dBm Channel: 48 BSSID: BC:EE:7B:6E:C7:EC
MAC IP Name RSSI Rx / Tx Rate Connected Flags
1C:87:2C:B6:2A:13 192.168.0.157 Tripkebab -60 dBm 234 / 156 Mbps 0:17:20 S AU
CC:3A:61:56:B1:EF 192.168.0.11 android-1220ba7 -71 dBm 13 / 6 Mbps 0:00:00 S




Flags: P=Powersave Mode, S=Short GI, T=STBC, A=Associated, U=Authenticated, G=Guest

 

[Calisro]

I've always seen odd things with VB bridges. Not this problem but other similar oddness.

 

[sfx2000]

I have a Virtual Box running on my HTPC, the guest OS is running in Bridged mode, which has previously and still should be treated by the router as a completly seperate device. With it's own IP and its own MAC address. The router shouldnt know that the Guest OS is connecting though the Host.

Surprised nobody has asked - what version of VirtualBox and what OS versions for the Guest and Host? Is the physical network interface shared, or does the VM have a dedicated NIC?

 

[Tripkebab]

Surprised nobody has asked - what version of VirtualBox and what OS versions for the Guest and Host? Is the physical network interface shared, or does the VM have a dedicated NIC?

Hi, thanks for replying.

I got the impression nobody had too much experience with resolving VB issues here. I've been doing some research and believe the issue to be down to a combination of the fact I was using a wireless network connection, and potential driver issue with wireless network adapter.

However from testing it appears the issue is present across multiple wireless adapters so while it may be driver related it's ultimately a limitation on the protocols the wireless cards are allowed to use, i.e. it's more secure so certain "features" that are allowed over a wired connection wont work on wireless and how the router deals with this.

Switching to a wired adapter resolved the issue and now both OS's are being assigned the correct IP and the display issue is gone. So are the random internet disconnects i was getting.

For anyone else wondering about this issue my testing was as follows.

I tried this on the following.
Host:
Windows 8
Windows 8.1
Windows 10

Guest:
Windows 8 Only

Also Tried on VB
4.3.26
4.3.30
5.0.4

Tried on the following wireless adapters.
Asus pce ac68
Qualcomm Atheros AR9002WB

As far as the physical network interface being shared, this is the blurb from VB.

Virtualbox uses a device driver on your host system that filters data from your physical network adapter. This driver is therefore called a "net filter" driver. This allows Virtualbox to intercept data from the physical network and inject data into it, effectively creating a new network interface in software.


I then found this forum which goes on to further explain the limitations of the wireless adapter. (which is when I gave up trying to get it working over wireless and switched to wired)

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=45571

I'm leaning more towards a limitation in the firmware of the router causing the problem (*cough* Merlin ). But i'm by no means a network expert so i'm just taking an educated guess as i had the same problems on two adapters (One of them being a matching Asus PCE part)