Virtualbox and VPN

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If I turn on my VPN so that internet connections are routed through the VPN and then I fire up a virtual machine running Linux, will my connections from the Linux instance be routed through the VPN?

Host OS = Win10 Pro 2004

VPN = VPN Unlimited

Virtual Machine = Oracle VM Virtualbox

Linux instance = Ubuntu Mate 18.04.04exit

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Virtual machines use the network card of your hardware, not necessarily the software connected to said card. The only way to test this is to fire up the VPN, then in the VM fire up a browser and go to https://whatismyipaddress.com/. Do the same before connecting to the VPN.

cheers, Paul

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Paul T wrote:

Virtual machines use the network card of your hardware, not necessarily the software connected to said card.

Not a given, even if it’s the default.

You can configure VirtualBox (and most other VMs) to not use your hardware network card(s), if you choose to do so… and all kinds of other things.

Not sure offhand if VirtualBox can do the thing where an external connection goes only to the VM, not to the host. But that’s sort of needed for the case where you run a firewall appliance in a VM and some other VMs certainly do make that possible.

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Paul T wrote:

Virtual machines use the network card of your hardware, not necessarily the software connected to said card. The only way to test this is to fire up the VPN, then in the VM fire up a browser and go to https://whatismyipaddress.com/. Do the same before connecting to the VPN.

cheers, Paul

Thanks for the tip. I checked my IP address on the host OS before and after starting my VPN. As expected, the IP address under the VPN was different.

I then checked my IP address on the virtual machine before and after starting my VPN on the host. The VM’s IP address in both cases was the same as the host’s.  In other words, with the VPN running on the host, the VM’s connection was also routed through the VPN. That’s good to know.

Host OS = Win10 Pro 2004

VPN = VPN Unlimited

Virtual Machine = Oracle VM Virtualbox

Linux instance = Ubuntu Mate 18.04.04

I don’t know if the same would be true using different virtual machine software.

mn– wrote:

You can configure VirtualBox (and most other VMs) to not use your hardware network card(s), if you choose to do so….

I just used the default settings for Oracle VM Virtualbox.

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