How to Let a Virtualbox Guest (Running Windows) Access the Internet?

Question

I have a VirtualBox virtual machine. The host machine runs Ubuntu. The guest (virtual) machine runs Windows XP.

I googled this problem, and people claim that they fixed it by changing adapter type to NAT, but there is no such option for me:

Any idea?

Update:

It didn't work either, after just switching it to NAT. Here are the current settings (with all details shown):

Here's a screenshot of the guest showing some networking information:

^{(Please note that this question is about how to give a VM Internet access in VirtualBox, so the presence of a picture of Windows doesn't automatically make this off-topic!)}

Larger image here.

Accepted Answer

Must Read

Setting Up NAT

NAT is not an option for Adapter Type. Rather, it's an option for Attached to.

Click where it currently says Bridged Adapter and you should be able to select NAT.

By the way, the reason changing it to NAT sometimes helps is not specific to Windows guests. Rather, if your physical (host) PC is on a LAN, Bridged Adapter (as well as NAT) usually works fine. If your physical PC has a network connection for just one computer--as is often the case if it's plugged directly into a cable/DSL/ISDN modem that only has one Ethernet port on it--then there is no local network to bridge to, so then you must use NAT.

If you use Bridged Adapter and your host machine is on a physical LAN, your guest machine will automatically be able to see and be seen by computers on the LAN. If you use NAT on a LAN, the guest machine will be able to see the other computers on the LAN but the other computers on the LAN (besides the virtualization host) will not be able to see it.

If you're interested in more details, see these articles on network bridging and network address translation.

If that works, great. Otherwise...

How to Let a Virtualbox Guest (Running Windows) Access the Internet?

Update:

3 Answers

Must Read

Setting Up NAT

David Miller