title: Internet connection in Virtualbox won't work (Mac OS X host / Windows XP guest)
body: <p>I have been trying (and failing) to set up any kind of internet connection for my Windows XP virtual machine and would appreciate some assistance.</p>
  
  <p>Details are as follows:</p>
  
  <p>Virtualbox 4.3.0</p>
  
  <p>Mac OS 10.6.8 host</p>
  
  <p>Windows XP SP 2 guest</p>
  
  <p>My internet connection is via Airport, with the IP address of the host being 192.168.1.2 (dynamically assigned by the router) and the router 192.168.1.1.</p>
  
  <p>I think the problem I'm having is either not knowing which settings I'm supposed to be changing or what configuration I need. Is Windows XP supposed to retrieve its settings from an in-built DHCP server in Virtualbox or do I need to manually specify the IP address and gateway? If so, how do I know which addresses I'm supposed to be using?</p>
  
  <p>In the Virtualbox preferences I also tried adding a host-only network and switching on the DHCP server, but when I ping any of the IP addresses used in the default configuration I just got either a "request timed out" or "destination unreachable" message.</p>
  
  <p>As a last resort I tried installing the guest additions but this stopped Windows from even being able to boot so that doesn't seem to be an option either.</p>
  
  <p>Taking all those points into account and trying not to complicate things, I thought I'd start over from the beginning again and the easiest option seemingly was to set-up a bridged adaptor connection and then (in Windows XP) manually specify the same IP addresses that the host has been assigned. But this didn't work either - the guest was unable to ping the router and the host got automatically assigned a different IP address after a Finder alert appeared saying that another computer on the network was already using the same IP address.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks for any assistance!</p>