Change Windows VM (Virtualbox) Mac Adress

I need to change the mac address from a GUEST Windows 7 box running in Virtualbox. I know you can go to Virtualbox admin (in the host) and change the settings for that VM, but I need to do it from the guest machine. Is this possible?

I tried changing the MAC from within windows registry, windows sees the mac change, but I had no network connection. Went to the router and looked up what was up and saw that the old mac was still connected. When I changed the MAC in the Virtualbox settings, the box had connectivity again (and the router showed the new mac address connected).

David Sarmiento

Posted 2013-11-22T03:07:19.457

Reputation: 111

Answers

As far as I know, the answer is No (I'm open to suggestions though!). If one could change the Mac address of a VM inside the VM it wouldn't be much of a VM.

Having said that, you can change the MAC address of a VM from the host command line with:

vboxmanage modifyvm "VM Name" --macaddress "address"

so this brings up the possibility of being able to change the MAC address inside the VM guest by communicating with an appropriate program outside the VM - ie: in the host. This could involve writing a server (socket, accept, listen etc) that takes an appropriate connection and runs an external program with the appropriate command line. Which might involve more StackExchange posts!

carveone

Posted 2013-11-22T03:07:19.457

Reputation: 318

That's a great idea! – David Sarmiento – 2013-11-27T13:46:23.597

Regretfully it didn't work :( – David Sarmiento – 2013-12-07T02:04:51.367

Ahh. Sorry to hear that. I guess you can't change the MAC while the VM is running. I didn't think of actually checking that scenario. Sorry. – carveone – 2013-12-11T17:58:24.913

You can now in v5.0.12. In the settings for the VM, network tab, click the advanced toggle, there is a refresh button beside the Mac address.

CAD bloke

Posted 2013-11-22T03:07:19.457

Reputation: 801