# Network access in virtual machine



## Vaso (Aug 17, 2016)

Hi all. I've been thinking of moving to FreeBSD from Linux for a while now and wanted to try it out first. I wanted a bit of a challenge rather than a ready made desktop version, hence the choice of FreeBSD rather than PC-BSD.

I installed the latest stable version as a virtual machine. The problem is I am trying this at work behind a company firewall, but I do have a proxy IP address I can use to get through it.

If I try to use the ports method to install stuff, it tries to connect to the interweb to update first and fails. I can't use pkg as that is not installed either.

I have followed this guide that suggests editing /etc/profiles and adding the following if using sh

`HTTP_PROXY=http://...:port`
`export HTTP_PROXY`

or this if using csh/tcsh

`setenv HTTP_PROXY http://...:port`

I rebooted the virtual machine just in case, but it made no difference. When I have used a Linux OS and set a system wide proxy address, it worked ok without having to touch the default network settings in the virtual machine i.e. NAT

Any help is greatly appreciated.


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## olidietzel (Aug 17, 2016)

If your hypervisor is KVM try using the e1000 nic emulation, in case you actually use virtio.


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## Vaso (Aug 17, 2016)

Hi, I'm using the latest version of VirtualBox in Windows 7. I use Linux on my home machine, but for work it is all Windows based.


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## SirDice (Aug 17, 2016)

First, check and make sure you actually have a connection to the network. It's no use setting a proxy if there's no connectivity to begin with


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## Vaso (Aug 18, 2016)

Hi, thanks but that's a given as I am writing this post on the same computer as the VM machine.


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## Murph (Aug 18, 2016)

Vaso said:


> Hi, thanks but that's a given as I am writing this post on the same computer as the VM machine.


Ok, but can the OS inside the VM see the local network (e.g. ping other hosts on local subnet, ping default router, ping proxy server, etc)?  Essentially, get basic IP stuff working locally, inside the firewall, then worry about reaching the outside world.


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## Vaso (Aug 22, 2016)

I had no access to any network inside the virtual machine. I am hesitant to mess with the network settings on VirtualBox too much, as once I lost network access on my machine. Our IT is quite strict on what gets onto the network ports.

Since my knowledge of networking is limited, I made it easy for myself and did the install at home away from the company firewall. I now have FreeBSD running Lumina desktop in my virtual machine.

.

I'll have a play at work when I get some more time.


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