# Help with dual NIC/NET setup



## Akovia (Feb 11, 2008)

Hi,
I've been trying to work out a “not so standard” network for a few days now and keep running into dead-ends. I have posted for help in other forums but either there is no solution or it's more than anyone is willing to bite off.


Design Goals:
I am trying to have my host OS and my Virtual Machine Guests use separate NIC cards.

Equipment and Software:
Host Machine = x86
CPU = AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 Dual Core
M/B = Asus Crosshair
Ethernet = nVidia nForce NIC (x2)

Network Hardware:

Arris Cable Modem (also IP Phone)
Linksys WRT300N (Inet Gateway 192.168.1.x)
Linksys WRVS4400N (10.0.0.x)

Software:

Host =Windows XP SP2 
(Kerio Firewall 2.1.5)
Guest = Ubuntu 7.10 W/Guest Additions
via Virtualbox 1.54 (no firewall yet...)

I think that's all the relevant information but can add anything I missed on request.

I want to add a little more detail so it can be understand why I'm trying to do this and the problems I've run into so far. My machine was bought mainly for gaming and graphics and I'd like to streamline it to do just that and use virtual machines for as much of everything else as possible. I want my host machine to have access to the internet to get updates for software and such but will use one of my virtual machines for most of my internet activities and LAN access. My host machine does not need any type of local network access and would like to close those ports on my host.

After messing around for quite a while and trying some of the information I found that is relevant I've run into some roadblocks. First and foremost, I haven't found a way to completely circumvent the host firewall with my guest machines. I want my guest VMs to have complete access to the outside world without interference from the host machine. Secondly, I haven't found a way to tell my host OS to only use the NIC I specify. It seems like there should be a registry setting or some other way to direct the host to only use NICx but I haven't found it.


The diagram below shows how I have it set up now which is the closest I've gotten to my goal.










I do realize that this configuration spans 2 OSs and virtual machine software and will be difficult finding anyone that is familiar with all 3 but I'm hoping it can be worked out piece by piece. The first thing I want to achieve is to have my XP host completely ignore the NIC/Bridge I've assigned to my virtual machine guests. Even if that can be done via routing or some other way, I want to make sure that my firewall doesn't interfere so I can have complete access to the net with my guest machines.

To me this doesn't seem to be such a far out notion but I can't find any information on doing a setup this way. I am happy to read any information I am pointed to to help myself with this issue and am not asking for a handout, but I'm trying to do this quicker than taking a couple online courses before I can get some joy.

Thank you in advance for any and all information that might help my cause

Best Regards,
Akovia


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

Have you tried Microsoft Virtual PC? It's free for download. I have VirtualBox here, I tried to create a VM with networking, and all I could get working was NAT.


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## Akovia (Feb 11, 2008)

Thanks for the reply johnwill. I'm pretty much vested in VBox already and have it up and working using HIF with a static IP already. I'm almost positive that my problems are with windows at this point. I just need to keep windows from accessing my VM NIC and my windows firewall from policing the VM NIC. 

I found some info on the M$ usenet forums that have helped with the first problem using windows metrics. I manually set the windows NIC as the highest priority interface and the VM NIC as the lowest and removed the gateway and DNS entries from the VM NIC/Bridge. Now windows does use the correct NIC by default, but would turn to the other if I lost connectivity on NIC 1 and my firewall still monitors both.

Ako


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

I don't have any experience with VirtualBox, I use Virtual PC and VMWARE here.


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