The 2 big names of virtual computers out there are VMWare (a very nice
software) and Virtual PC.
Virtual PC offers 5 networking options for Virtual PC's:
1. Not connected. Enough said, (pretty purposeless for our uses).
2. Local - This option provides networking support between virtual machines
only. This means that the virtual machine will not have access to any network
resources on the host operating system.
3. Shared Networking - The first virtual machine network card can be
assigned to Shared Network (NAT). When this option is selected, the virtual
machine is connected to a private network created by Virtual PC. The network
includes a virtual DHCP server and a virtual network address translation
server. The virtual machine is then able to access most TCP/IP-based
resources that the host operating system can access. For more information
about shared networking, see Managing shared networking for virtual machines.
4. Network adapter on the physical computer When this option is selected,
the virtual machine is connected directly to the currently selected network
connection of the host operating system. The virtual machine will appear and
behave like a separate physical computer on the same network. The networking
configuration of the virtual machine is determined by the configuration of
the network. For example, the configuration of the network will determine how
an IP address is assigned to the virtual machine. If the network uses a DHCP
server, an IP address is assigned dynamically to the virtual machine.
Similarly, if the network uses static IP addresses, you must manually
configure the virtual machine to use a static IP address, following the
procedure specified in the documentation for the virtual machine operating
system.
5. Microsoft Loopback Adapter If you want to create a more complex network
environment on a single physical computer, without installing multiple
physical network cards, you can install multiple instances of Microsoft
Loopback Adapter on the host operating system. For more information about
Microsoft Loopback Adapter, see Extending networking capabilities for virtual
machines.
What we want to do is run a server on the virtual computer, and have it
available to external networks, and perferably to our host system as well, so
we can make a honeypot or test exploits. Looking at the above list, options
1, 2, and 3 will NOT do what we want. Not connected (option 1) means just
what it says, Local only (option 2) only lets Virtual machines talk - and we
want our host to be able to talk, and NAT (option 3), while being useful,
still won't allow an external network OR the host to talk to the virtual PC.
So that leaves us with two options - 4, and 5.
So what about option 4. Well, it works fine, you can run the virtual PC as
though it's a real computer on your network. And if you have a hardware
switch like a LinkSys, this is OK too because you can always configure your
switch to allow ports/deny ports/access to the virtual machine. So you have a
server now with all the benefits of a virtual PC (ability to suspend, ability
to restore a prior state, etc). BUT it's hard to be "specific", unless you
have a fancy hardware firewall. You can't make sure only certain items get
thru. Also, what if you want to remap a port completely? Like you only have
port 80 on the virtual PC but you want to use a different port thru the
firewall? Yes, you can configure firewall rules for this, but there is an
easier way. Use option 5.
Option 5 opens our Virtual Machine only to the host. You install the
Microsoft Loopback adapter. i have tried in Windows XP, this is a trivial
thing and super simple:
1. Right click on "My Computer" and choose "Properties."
2. go to the "Hardware" tab and click "Add New Hardware Wizard".
3. The wizard will search your machine for a bit and then ask you if the
hardware is already installed. Say yes.
4. In the next dialog that comes up, scroll all the way to the bottom where
it says "add a new hardware device" and click next.
5. Now say "Install hardware that I manually select from a list".
6. Scroll down to Network Adapters, click Next.
7. Now just choose "Microsoft", and "Microsoft Loopback Adapter" and click
next, and you are off to the races.
You may choose now to set up the IP address for the loopback adapter by
going into "Settings->Control panel->Network Connections", and selecting the
Loopback adapter. However, for this tutorial I didn't do that, I just let the
loopback adapter get an autoconfiguration IP address, which it does by
default.
Once the loopback adapter is installed and ready, we have to tell Virtual PC
use it.
Start Virtual PC up (if it's not running already), and choose "Settings" for
your particular virtual machine, and then choose "Networking" in the settings
list. Set Number of adapters to 1, and for adapter 1, choose "Microsoft
Loopback Adapter". Note that you can only change this setting if the virtual
machine is OFF, if it's in a saved state you'll have to turn if off first
then make these changes.
Now turn on the virtual machine, let it boot up, and let's try using this
loopback adapter. The Microsoft Loopback Adapter has installed it's routing
in your Host PC's route table (you can verify this by going to a command
prompt and typing "route print"), so if you ping your virtual machine from
the host it should work. You don't even need to worry about subnets either.
So let's try it:
My loopback adapter's IP autoconfiguration turned out to be 169.254.25.129.
Note that this is the gateway then, to the virtual machine (even though it
won't show up at "gateway" in ipconfig in the virtual PC). My virtual
machine's IP is 169.254.136.191. (found by running ipconfig inside the
virtual machine OS). Let's ping it from the HOST:
CODE
C:\>ping 169.254.136.191
Pinging 169.254.136.191 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 169.254.136.191: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 169.254.136.191: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 169.254.136.191: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 169.254.136.191: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Ping statistics for 169.254.136.191:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
C:\>
I'm sure this is the virtual PC because look the round trip time was 0ms !
So I can talk to the virtual machine now, from my host. I can now set up a
server on the virtual PC and communicate to it from my host by using this IP
address. I can even create network shares between the two as well. However,
this still doesn't open up the virtual machine to the outside world.
I hope now the server/client on the virtual machine, which is visible to the
outside world (at least, the world outside your host machine),
Alternatively, if you don't mind the virtual PC being a physical machine on
the network, you can set it to use "Network Adapter on the Physical
Computer", and if you have a hardware switch like a LinkSys, you can set the
LinkSys to let the virtual machine be "DMZ" - since the virtual PC will have
it's own IP Address from the Linksys. Note that DMZ option will expose it to
the internet completely. I'd say the biggest benefit of choosing option 5,
however (the extended network option, and using fpipe), is greater control
over exactly which ports get in to the VM , as well as the ability to
redirect ports (remap ports to other ports ) at the same time, which aids in
flexibility.
Another cool thing about option 5, is if we have a packet sniffer we can set
it to sniff the Microsoft Loopback Adapter only, and watch the traffic to the
virtual machine, without any host interference.
Hope this is Usefull to you, and i dont have idea abut ubuntu , just one
week back i got the CD, I do working on that, please reply me back
Best Regards
Prasanth
"T" wrote:
> To support my studies for my MCSA I have decided to build a virtual network
> with Virtualbox. Unfortunately I can not get the virtual PCs to see each
> other. Has anyone succeeded in doing this and can they advise how they
> achieved this? I have built two networks in my attempts one using Vista and
> the other using Ubuntu as the base system. The virtual machines are XP Pro
> and Server 2003.
> Thanks.
>
>
>
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