adding Virtual PC 2007 to host network

Question

I am using Virtual PC 2007 with Windows xp Pro as the Guest. Is it possible to add the Virtual PC to the network of the guest PC and to the domain of the Guest PC? I enabled NAT shared networking but that only allows internet access on the guest.. Thanks

Answer 1

This shouldn't be a problem when you add the guest to host's physical adapter:

In the settings for your VM, go to Networking and instead of "Shared networking (NAT)", select the NIC that's connected to the network on your host (e.g. "Realtek RTL8116 Gigabit Ethernet", or whatever your NIC is; this is equivalent to VMWare's Bridged Mode). That way, the guest will appear as a real computer on your network, and will work like a physical box on the network.

IIRC, MS VPC bypasses the default Windows firewall on the host, so only the guest's firewall applies; for other FW products, you may need to enable something like "permit packets not destined for this host".

Answer 2

Just to add to the above answer-

1.

Inside the Local Area Connection Properties- VM Network Services Driver wasnt installed without which the NIC option wont appear in the Virtual machine Network Adapter Configuration.

I reinstalled the Virtual PC and that entry Virtual Machine Network Driver appeared.

2.

Another helpful resource-

http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2007/01/15/fixing-broken-virtual-networking.aspx

Answer 3

Shouldn't be a problem as long as you can connect to a domain controller from the virtual computer.

If you know the IP address of a domain controller, try to ping it. Then try to ping it using the computer name, to see if name resolution is working correctly. What happens when you join a domain using Control Panel | System. Do you receive an error message?

I have not used Virtual PC, only VMWare workstation on Linux, so I do not know how the networking setup is on Virtual PC. On VMWare, you can choose between bridged and NAT networking for a virtual machine. I have been able to set up Windows guest computers as members of a windows domain using both kinds of network setup.