Is there a quick way to make VirtualBox running Win XP connect to the Internet?

Question

Is there a quick way to make VirtualBox running Win XP connect to the Internet?

If using Virtual PC 2007, then it is pretty simple: just choose the Network as "Shared (NAT)" and the Virtual PC running XP can use the Internet.

With VirtualBox, there are quite many options:

PCnet PCI II
PCnet Fast III
Intel Pro/1000 MT Desktop  (3 choices there total...)

and then Attached to

Not attached
Bridged
NAT
Internal Network
Host-only adapter

so there are 25 combinations there... I tried a few and they didn't work. Is there an easy way to make it work?

Answer 1

NAT is enough for sharing Internet. Choice of card type is only important with regards to driver. I think that both are supported inside of XP, but you may wish to try first with PCnet PCI II since that one is older (and thus probably has driver already included in XP).

Answer 2

If you install XP on VirtualBox with the default settings (AMD/PCNet III, iirc) and then install the guest additions it should connect to the Internet.

If you choose the Intel Pro 1000 series adapter, you can download a driver for your OS here.