PfSense via virtualbox on Windows Host, Schematically speaking
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In an effort to reduce the number of physical boxes that I have in my basement, I want to virtualize pfSense. I have great hardware with an onboard NIC and a dual PCIx NIC. When Windows boots up, it grabs the internet from the cable modem, even though it is not plugged into the onboard NIC. I have the cable modem plugged into port A on the PCIx NIC and port B goes to the switch. The onboard NIC plugs into the switch to get an IP from the PCIx NIC, port B.
It doesn't work as planned. The Windows box (virtual box host) gets onto the internet, but the rest of the house gets Jack $%&t. Keep in mind that I setup the virtual machine to use Port A and B of the PCIx NIC, and not allow access to the onboard NIC.
It seems like Windows realizes there is nothing on the onboard NIC, so it pulls the network settings from the PCIx NIC. How can I make Windows only use the onboard NIC, and not the PCIx NIC, yet Windows still needs to see the PCIx NIC card in order to allow virtualbox to do it's thing with the virtualization?
Thanks!
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Wipe your box and install vsphere. Then you can make this work. Its also free.
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I am not familiar with the details of configuring Windows NICs for use with VirtualBox. I have used VirtualBox on Linux.
It seems like Windows realizes there is nothing on the onboard NIC, so it pulls the network settings from the PCIx NIC.
I guess the PCIx NIC is configured to get an IP address by DHCP (Windows default).
I suspect that you probably want only the onboard NIC configured by DHCP (so you can access the Windows OS over the network) and the other two NICs configured in Windows with no IPv4 and no IPv6 and the two emulated NICs for the pfSense Virtual Machine BRIDGED in VirtualBox to the two PCIx NICs.