How to Connect To Internet in Windows XP Guest OS in Virtual PC with NAT
While using Network Address translation or NAT adapter on virtual PC 2007, by using Windows XP as the guest OS, it has been notice that the system does not get connected to the Internet. Then you will find it unable to use the system for browsing the websites with any of the web browsers, like the Internet Explorer and Firefox.
The problem while trying to connect to the Internet with the virtual machine having guest OS of Windows XP, takes place for no real reason, which is in spite the networking with NAT adapter working prior to the trouble occurrence.
However, some connections via protocols that do not call for domain name of translation, for instance secure FTP, FTP, SSH or telnet to remote server over Internet by means of IP address as an alternative host name, seem to work just fine.
The trouble seems to lie in Windows XP (which is functioning as a guest operating system) due to wrong DNS server which gets automatically assigned. The fault may also occur if the user had entered the incorrect IP address of the DNS server.
In this case, first confirm that the DNS server is really resolving a URL or domain name properly. Otherwise, you have to change it to the correct the DNS Server address in guest operating system of the virtual machine as per the DNS Server address entered in host operating system.
There could be another reason for the above problem, which is wrong assignment by the virtual networking adapter. If the network connection properties for TCP/IP protocol is set to obtain DNS server address automatically then the virtual NAT router will assign and allocate the same DNS server that’s been used by host operating system to guest operating.
Nevertheless, for some causes, the DNS server used might be wrong or invalid, such as in the case when the user switches or changes Internet connection which have dissimilar DNS server, or when user changes the Internet connection to new DNS servers devoid of restarting the horde computer.
What the come across this type of issue, you need to first shut down the virtual machines, and then restart Microsoft Virtual PC. The error will be fixed following that. Just in case you’re unable to shutdown the guest operating system for any reason, you have to configure and set a fixed DNS Server IP address manually in the TCP/IP Properties for Local Area Network (LAN) Connections.
Note: – If you are going to install Windows Server 2003 or 2008 or Windows Vista as a guest operating system in your virtual machine of VPC, then there will one more DNS Server caused, and it is not capable to connect or browse the internet. In such a case, the resolution to the issue would be to do manual settings for the DNS Server IP address, the IP address should be set as 192.168.131.254.