[SOLVED] Virtualbox

[JediKnight2]

I am in DIRE need of help. I am running virtualbox within my server. I have WindowsXP Pro guests installed. The server is in another state and I am connecting from my home. The problem I am having is trying to print. I want to be able to print on my home printer. I have printer checked in the resources tab and have made sure both systems have the same driver. I am using Windows XP Pro RDP to connect to the guest.

[Rubberman]

This is a Windows problem, not a Linux or VirtualBox problem, in my opinion. Have you shared your local printer? After all, the remote virtualized Windows server cannot print to your local device unless you have configured that properly. In any case, as I said, this is likely a Windows networking/sharing problem, and has nada to do with Linux or VBox. To your local client, the remote server is just a Windows server running across the network.

[JediKnight2]

I would have thought that as well...but I can do this successfully on another system..it just the VBox system that I cannot get to work.

[Rubberman]

When you are connected to the server running in VBox, can you see your local client system? If so, does the printer show up?

[JediKnight2]

Nope..I have tried to turn on sharing for drives as well. I don't see it in my network...

If you want access I will give you the address so you can take a look.

I should add that I am connecting thru the server using the server IP plus the port I assign within VBoxManage to the VM. The address of the XP Pro Guest is like 10.7.42.16 but the IP of the server is 64.34.xxx.xx

[Rubberman]

Ok. Then the VBox is internally nat'd on the host system, not exposed to the rest of the world. That is likely your problem. You will have to determine what ports the Windows network and printer sharing are used and open those as well. At least that's what I would check out first.

[JediKnight2]

I can get another IP if need be not sure if I can do that with bridged to that VM or not....

You mean open the ports on the linux server side...

[Rubberman]

You mean open the ports on the linux server side...

Yes, but configure VBoxManage to pass them thru to the VM.

All this aside, your configuration is still very insecure from the outside attack perspective. These vectors (Windows sharing) are very susceptible to hacking. My recommendation would be to do this:

1. Don't expose your Linux host server to the internet, but rather only put it on your local unrouted network behind the firewall.
2. Set up a VPN on the Linux server host's network and use that to connect your remote client to the host's network.
3. Instead of passing the ports thru to the VM, configure your VM's to instead not use the local nat'd bridge configuration, but to present your VM to the local network directly.

Once you connect via the VPN to the host network, your client is just another local computer on that network, so it can connect directly to the VM that has been configured to be visible on the local network, just like any other server. I used to do this when I was consulting at Seagate. I would VPN to their network, and then I was able to act like any other local computer, and could access all permitted company servers and other network resources (printers, disc farms, etc) without problems.

[Rubberman]

BTW, this thread should most appropriately be moved to the Networking forum, I think.

[JediKnight2]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for pointing me in the right direction...NOBODY even on VBox Forums has suggested port forwarding. What I did to fix this was FIRST create a user with a password on the VM machine. Then I went into the Registry of the VM machine and change the port it uses for RDP. It is at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > System > CurrentControlSet > Control > TerminalServer > WinStations > RDP-Tcp
under port number. This just needs to be a port that this VM will use, not something the server uses. I then rebooted the VM. After its reboot I stopped the VM and created a nat forward for the particular VM like this

VBoxManage modifyvm "VMName" --natpf1 "rdpfix,tcp,,PORT#,,PORT#"

PORT# is the number I put in the registry. I then started the VM and when I went to the VM via RDP I entered the IP plus the new port. It then asked for my username and password....once connected my printers started popping up. I had already installed the drivers before trying to get it to work....