Manually configure networking in Debian under VBox

For some reason my Debian 4.0 box running under VBOX does not connect to the internet via NAT all the time, reason? I don't know. Anyway, I was able to get it up and running using the usual old, in the terminal configuration. First, since my first interface, eth0, is configured by default to get IP from DHCP, I have to bring it down, i.e.

#: ifdown eth0

Now, let us bring it up manually with an IP that is probably not being used by other VMs running inside VBOX in this case we will try 10.0.2.3.

#: ifconfig eth0 up 10.0.2.3 netmask 255.255.255.0

Note that by default, VBOX gateway is 10.0.2.2 or basically we can also say that this is the IP address of the host machine internally. Let us now add entry into the routing table to route traffic to the gateway.

#: route add default gw 10.0.2.2

One last change we need to make is in the file /etc/resolv.conf.

#: nano -w /etc/resolv.conf

#<-- this line is not included, search for namesever
nameserver 192.xxx.xxx.xxx

Note that the IP address that should be used for the nameserver should point to an existing DNS server. Since my host is running Windows XP Sp2, nameserver/DNS can be easily determined via the command:

C:\>ipconfig /all

As sample output would be:

C:\>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

       Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : machine_name
       Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . : me.atmy.com
       Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
       IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
       WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
       DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : me.atmy.com
                                           me2.atmy.com

Ethernet adapter VMware Network Adapter VMnet8:

       Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
       Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for
VMnet8
       Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-56-C0-00-08
       Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
       IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.33.1
       Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
       Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter VMware Network Adapter VMnet1:

       Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
       Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for
VMnet1
       Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-56-C0-00-01
       Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
       IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.106.1
       Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
       Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

       Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
       Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network
Connection
       Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-13-CE-F0-BD-CB

Ethernet adapter Network Bridge (Network Bridge):

       Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
       Description . . . . . . . . . . . : MAC Bridge Miniport
       Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-FF-EC-C1-2E-3C

PPP adapter HUAWEI3G.Globe - 3G with HSDPA:

       Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
       Description . . . . . . . . . . . : WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface
       Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-53-45-00-00-00
       Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
       IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.60.136.220
       Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
       Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.60.136.220
       DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.40.100.30
                                           203.177.255.10
       NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

C:\>

In the sample above we have two DNS servers, 192.40.100.30 and 203.177.255.10. So you might have a nameserver entry of both or just one of them. ~ts