File sharing among Host and Guest

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Teodoro - 13 May 2008 16:41 GMT

Sorry about that: it's not a really new topic ...
I want to use (R/W) Host files in the Guest environment.
The first suggestion would be to use the "Shared Folders" feature.
Unfortunately this feature is still very unreliable: when one explores the
Guest file system, if the depth of the tree being explored is deeper that 3,
Windows Explorer becomes unresponsive and unstable.
That is most of the times it crashes.
Even worse: if I succeed in opening a ("deep") file, I'm not sure that that
file, once modified, can be successfully saved (many times the application
crashes, and so my modifications remain unsaved).
A really very poor feature !
It should be possible to share files through the network.
Unfortunately this approach works only if I'm attached to some network. It
doesn't work if I'm working on a train ...
It should be possible to use the Loopback Adapter as a network support.
I tried to do that in many ways, but I never succeded !
Help me please !
The host system is (now) Windows Server 2008 EE/64bit, the guest system is
Windows Server 2003/R2/32bit.
Many thanks

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Teodoro

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bobfnospam@duxsysnospam.com - 13 May 2008 18:46 GMT

I have reliability problems with Shared Folders in my application as
well. All I have found is to keep the shared folder small (in terms of
number of entries) and shallow. It also seems to help to make sure that
no "autorun" type operations are attempted on the folder.

I often use drag and drop between the host and the guest -- it seems to
be more reliable!

Bob

> Sorry about that: it's not a really new topic ...
> I want to use (R/W) Host files in the Guest environment.
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
> Windows Server 2003/R2/32bit.
> Many thanks

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I Green - 13 May 2008 19:42 GMT

On my host OS, I shared 'My Documents" and its works fine for me for all of
the various guest machines using Win98 up. Mind you I have hardware support
for VM which helps immensely. The shared folder is read/write no problem, I
can download easily to the sub-folders as needed.

> Sorry about that: it's not a really new topic ...
> I want to use (R/W) Host files in the Guest environment.
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
> Windows Server 2003/R2/32bit.
> Many thanks

Reply to this Message

Bill Grant - 13 May 2008 23:56 GMT

What sort of problems did you have with using a loopback adapter? It works
fine for me.

If you install a Microsoft loopback adapter in the host and link the NIC
in the guest to the loopback option you effectively have two machines in the
same network. All you need to do is give them IP addresses in the same IP
subnet.

> Sorry about that: it's not a really new topic ...
> I want to use (R/W) Host files in the Guest environment.
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
> Windows Server 2003/R2/32bit.
> Many thanks

Reply to this Message

Teodoro - 14 May 2008 10:44 GMT

On the Host system I have:

Ethernet adapter Loopback Adapter:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Loopback Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-00-4C-4F-4F-50
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::2881:b99f:d8f6:5fe2%16(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

While on the Guest:

Ethernet adapter Loopbach Adapter:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Loopback Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-00-4C-4F-4F-50
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.3
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Still, when I try to ping the Host from the Guest I get no answer.

Again, on the Host:

C:\Users\Administrator>net share

Share name Resource Remark

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
C$ C:\ Default share
IPC$ Remote IPC
ADMIN$ C:\Windows Remote Admin
Documents C:\Users\Administrator\Documents

The command completed successfully.

While on the Guest:

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>net use z: \\192.168.2.1\Documents
System error 67 has occurred.

The network name cannot be found.

Should be something subtle ....

Signature

Teodoro

> What sort of problems did you have with using a loopback adapter? It works
> fine for me.
[quoted text clipped - 26 lines]
> > Windows Server 2003/R2/32bit.
> > Many thanks

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Bill Grant - 14 May 2008 11:50 GMT

No, you do not use a loopback adapter on the guest. You set the NIC in the
guest to the loopback adapter option (so that the virtual NIC is in the same
network as the loopback adpter on the host) and set the NIC to have an IP in
the same IP subnet as the loopback adapter on the host.

> On the Host system I have:
>
[quoted text clipped - 90 lines]
>> > Windows Server 2003/R2/32bit.
>> > Many thanks

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Teodoro - 14 May 2008 12:54 GMT

Thanks.
Yes: I can do that:
Ethernet adapter Loopback Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel 21140-Based PCI Fast Ethernet
Adapter Generic) #2
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-03-FF-1E-69-84
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.2
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

With this, I get (from the GUEST):

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>ping 192.168.2.1

Pinging 192.168.2.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 192.168.2.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 3ms, Maximum = 5ms, Average = 4ms

But:

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>net use x: \\192.168.2.1\Documents
/PERSISTENT:YES
System error 67 has occurred.

The network name cannot be found.

Thanks again

Signature

Teodoro

> No, you do not use a loopback adapter on the guest. You set the NIC in the
> guest to the loopback adapter option (so that the virtual NIC is in the same
[quoted text clipped - 95 lines]
> >> > Windows Server 2003/R2/32bit.
> >> > Many thanks

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Bill Grant - 14 May 2008 23:55 GMT

Well if you have network connectivity it is not a VPC problem or a TCP/IP
problem. You have to use normal network sharing debugging methods. Is
Netbios over TCP/IP enabled on the interfaces of both machines? Can you
ping by name? Are the two machines in the same workgroup? Have you run the
network setup wizard? Have you shared the folder?

> Thanks.
> Yes: I can do that:
[quoted text clipped - 146 lines]
>> >> > Windows Server 2003/R2/32bit.
>> >> > Many thanks

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Robert Riebisch - 15 May 2008 09:38 GMT

> Well if you have network connectivity it is not a VPC problem or a TCP/IP
> problem. You have to use normal network sharing debugging methods. Is
> Netbios over TCP/IP enabled on the interfaces of both machines? Can you
> ping by name? Are the two machines in the same workgroup? Have you run the
> network setup wizard? Have you shared the folder?

And don't forget personal firewalls.

Signature

Robert Riebisch
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Bill Grant - 15 May 2008 12:06 GMT

>> Well if you have network connectivity it is not a VPC problem or a
>> TCP/IP
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> And don't forget personal firewalls.

Indeed! Missed that one.

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