VirtualBox Networking Modes

A brief comparison of networking modes in Oracle Virtualbox.

NAT

• NAT(Network Address Translation) mode is the default mode when you spin up a new virtual machine(vm) on virtual box.
• This mode allows the vm to communicate with the ‘internet’ by using the host machine as a proxy

Figure 1: Virtualbox default networking mode

• Communication to the vm can be made by configuring port forwarding through the vritualbox GUI or a CLI tool such as Vagrant.

# Example (using vagrant):
config.vm.network "forwarded_port", guest: 22, host: 2222

• This means all traffic to port 2222 on the host will be forwarded to port 22 of the vm.

NAT Network

• Instead of creating a virtual NAT engine for each vm, Virtualbox creates one NAT engine is used for all vms as illustrated below:

Source: VirtualBox Network Settings: Complete Guide

• As it is shown above, the vms can communicate to each other and as well as the ‘internet’.

Internal or Private Network

• This mode allows the vms to be completely isolated from the host and the ‘internet’.
• That is unlike NAT network mode, communication only occurs among the vms connected to the internal network.

Host Only Network

• In this mode, a Virtual Ethernet adapter is used to allow the host and the vms to communicate directly.
• The vms cannot communicate with any external network in this mode

Hybrid or Bridge Network

• In this mode the vm acts as a physical device connected to your network
• Basically, this is similar to buying a new computer and connecting it to your home or office network.

References

• VirtualBox Network Settings: Complete Guide
• VirtualBox Networking (NAT & Port Forwarding, Bridged, Internal, Host-Only)