Virtualbox in Bridged Adapter mode?

Question

I have Headless VirtualBox set up on my Debian machine and windows xp as guest. It works well. My Network is set to "nat". It works also well but the upload speed is very low. I want to set the network to bridged mode, but every time I try it, it destroys my network so I cant even SSH / Ping the server...

Is there a tutorial for how to set up properly the network to bridged mode?

Answer 1

When you change the network from NAT to Bridged, you're now connecting to a different network, so your IP will change. Your Vm will now be connected to the same network the host is, so if the host is getting it's address via DHCP, the Vm will also. This means that the host must be connected to a network, of it's connected directly to a cable or DSL modem for example, this won't work.

After the switch, you'll need to get the new IP for the VM, which could be difficult if the host is headless. Try installing a Zeroconf mDNS program like Bonjour for Windows which will enable you to reach your VM by a hostname rather than by IP.