Access Windows Guest From Mac OS Host VirtualBox

Question

I have problem to access web server on my Guest Machine from Host Machine. So I have Mac OS Catalina as Host Machine and Windows 10 as Guest Machine, also use VirtualBox v6.0.14

I configure my guest os with 2 adapter as follow:

1. NAT adapter (I use this adapter to access internet)
2. Host Only Adapter (I use this adapter to communicate between host and guests)

Right now, I can access internet from guest machine, so we can assume first adapter (NAT) is work. I also can ping host machine from guest machine, but I cannot ping guest machine from machine (I think there is problem with second configuration which is host only adapter configuration)

From the configuration I got IP config like this:

1. vboxnet0 configuration on virtual box

2. IP Config on Host Machine (Mac OS Catalina)

3. IP Config on Guest Machine (Windows 10)

I can ping host machine from guest machine as follow:

But I can not ping guest machine from host machine (also can not open web server on guest machine from host machine) Anyone can help me to find the solution, to access guest machine from host machine with this scenario?

Answer 1

Independent of firewalls or other considerations, there are two basic ways gain access to a VirtualBox VM Guest hosting e.g. a web server.

The first option is to add a bridged network adapter (this is the simplest solution). This will add a virtual adapter for the Guest that can be accessed like any normal machine on the network (i.e. via a discrete local IP address ex. assigned by your router's DHCP).

The second option is to use the existing NAT adapter's Advanced options to configure port forwarding, like you would on a router. That is, you would take e.g. port 80, and tell VirtualBox to pass requests for that port to your Guest.