VP w/ Win XP on Win XP Host w/ USB Broadband modem

I wonder whether there's a work-around for the following situation:
* VP with Windows XP installed on Windows XP host computer.
* Host computer connects to an ADSL connection using a USB modem and has no
problem going online
* VP computer cannot go online (doesn't receive an IP address) regardless of
which Network Settings I choose.
* All firewalls on host computer disabled.

I tested it on a broadband connection using a modem which connects to the
host using a regular network card and works fine.

I'd very much appreciate any advice -- otherwise I'll have to buy a new ADSL
modem... THANKS!

 

Does the host computer have a network card? If it does, what happens if
you select the Shared Networking option?

If the host machine does not have a network card, you will need to set
up a Microsoft Loopback Adapter. Enable ICS on the host machine (with the
USB interface as the shared connection). Then set the VPC NIC to the
loopback option.

 

Because your ADSL ISP will allow you only one IP address on your broadband
connection, the only VPC network configuiration that you can use is Shared
Network (NAT).

Try going online to broadband before launching VPC, so that VPC can sense
the network exists.

Shared Network (NAT) should give the guest OS an IP address in the
192.168.xxx.xxx range.

 

Bill,

Thanks for your reply. The host machine does have a network card, and when
I'm setting the Shared Networking option, I'm not getting a valid IP address
and cannot get online with the Virtual Machine... Still suggesting I should
use the Loopback adapter?

Thanks!

 

That's odd. What IP does your NIC now have?

Have you tried restarting the VM?

 

Here's what I'm doing:
* starting host PC (Win XP)
* Connect to broadband & acquire valid IP address
* Start Virtual machine (Win XP) & Check network settings to be set on
Shared Networking (NAT).
* Check IP address of VP: 192.168.131.65; default gateway: 192.169.0.1.
* ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew lead to the same IP as above....

could it be weirder?? And yes, I have restarted the VP...

 

Here's what I'm doing:
* starting host PC (Win XP)
* Connect to broadband & acquire valid IP address
* Start Virtual machine (Win XP) & Check network settings to be set on
Shared Networking (NAT).
* Check IP address of VP: 192.168.131.65; default gateway: 192.169.0.1.
* ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew lead to the same IP as above....

could it be weirder?? And yes, I have restarted the VP...

 

Robin,

Thanks for your reply! You're right to say that my ISP doesn't allow for
more than one IP address and seems like doesn't have a DHCP configured
either, based on the ipconfig /all results (posted below):

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : <host name>
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : <DNS suffix of my network>
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : <DNS suffix of my network>

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : <MAC Address>

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast
Eth
ernet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : <MAC Address>

PPP adapter Speedtouch Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : <MAC Address>
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 82.12.xxx.xxx
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 82.12.xxx.xxx (same as IP address)
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 194.168.4.xxx
194.168.8.xxx

However, I've checked to see whether Shared Networking works, and I still
don't seem to get any luck... This is what I'm doing:
* Starting host machine (Win XP)
* Establish connection to ISP and check that I have connection and valid IP
Address
* Start VP (Win XP) and check whether in Network Settings I'm indeed using
the Shared Networking (NAT) selection.
* Check IP address of host machine and get a 192 IP address as below:

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : <machine name>
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel 21140-Based PCI Fast
Ethernet
Adapter (Generic)
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : <MAC Address>
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.131.65
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.169.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.131.254
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.169.0.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, January 22, 2005
10:25:03
PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, January 27, 2022
5:13:34 P
M

* However, I'm not getting through to anything on the web... What am I doing
wrong?

Appreciate any ideas!

Thanks - Mike

 

You need something to act as the private interface on your host machine.

What you want to do is set up a way for the vm to share your Internet
(PPP) connection. This depends on some sort of address translation between
private and public IP addresses (ie NAT). For this to work, the vm must
connect to the private side of NAT. At present, there isn't any private
side! You have two NICs, but they are both disconnected and unavailable.

If you have nothing to connect them to, set up the Microsoft loopback
adapter to act as your private interface. Enable ICS on the host (with the
PPP interface as the public interface) and set the guest machine's NIC to
the loopback option.

The guest will then get its network config from the host (via the
loopback adapter) and use the loopback as its gateway to the Internet.

Robin may have something to add later. It's still the middle of the
night in the UK. It's mid-morning here in Sydney - warm but showery.

 

It looks like your guest has the wrong DNS setting for some reason. You
should hard code the guest DNS to the same settings as the host DNS
settings.
--
Cheers,
Benjamin Armstrong
===============================
Virtual machine Program Manager

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
You assume all risk for your use.

 

Bill,

Could you tell me more about the Microsoft Loopback adapter? Never had to
use it before... And as an additional complication, if the machine
experiencing difficulties were to be a user workstation (laptop) where users
didn't have admin priviledges, would I have a way to configure the loopback
adapter and 'assign' it to either the user or the machine using a GPO from
the server?

Thanks!

Mike

 

You should search the Virtual PC help files for 'loopback'.
--
Cheers,
Benjamin Armstrong
===============================
Virtual machine Program Manager

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
You assume all risk for your use.

 

I become more and more confused about what you are trying to do here as
more info comes to light. If it is a user workstation, its LAN NIC would be
active and you wouldn't have this problem. If it is a laptop which is
sometimes plugged into a LAN but sometimes not, using the loopback adapter
is probably safer. You can't use the NIC if it is not plugged in.

The Microsoft loopback adapter is just an interface you can use if you
don't have a NIC.