Question

117

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

rated 0 times [ 117] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 270601 / 1 Year ago, wed, january 11, 2023, 10:10:43

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.

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llianconclad

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answered 1 Year ago elopingapo · Accepted Answer

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.