Member Avatar for MasterHacker110

I am working on a project. I am a pen-tester. now at home i dont really have alot of computers that i can use so i got virtual box and i have created 2 windows xp 32 bit hdd on that virtual box. No i want to setup the computers as if they were of some busines that had all their computers connected to the main computer.

something similar is in windows 7 a homegroup. I have tried to create a small business or home network but it says i am missing hardware. on the vmware the network options are set to bridge addapter. i can browse the web from my "target" computer but i cant setup that kind of network.

my network consists of of a netgear modem and a cable connecting my computer to it.

How can i setup this kind of network?

Thanks...

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by JorgeM

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Building on 's setup and 's point about verifying connectivity, here is a short, practical checklist to create a small office-style LAN inside your hypervisor with Windows XP guests and how to troubleshoot the common "no network" symptoms.

Decide how the VMs should appear to each other. Use a host-only (private) network when you want an isolated lab that does not depend on physical hardware, or use a bridged adapter when VMs must be visible on your real LAN and get addresses from your router. If you need both isolation and internet access, give each VM two adapters (host-only for the lab, NAT or bridged for internet). Note: bridging over some wireless adapters can fail; if a bridged VM shows no link, try host-only + NAT instead.

Configure the XP guests and verify basics: confirm the VM has a virtual NIC enabled and that Guest Additions/VMware Tools are installed so the guest sees a network adapter; set TCP/IP on each XP machine to the same subnet (static addresses are easiest for a lab); ensure Client for Microsoft Networks and File and Printer Sharing are present in the NIC properties; set the same Workgroup name; temporarily disable the XP firewall while testing. Useful diagnostic commands:

ipconfig /all
ping <other-VM-IP>
arp -a
route print
nbtstat -a <other-VM-IP>

Troubleshooting tips: if Windows reports "missing hardware" inside the guest, open Device Manager in the VM to see if a network adapter is listed; then check the hypervisor VM settings and attach a virtual NIC. If pings fail but IPs look correct, check firewall/antivirus in the guest, confirm both NICs are on the same subnet, and verify the host's virtualization network driver is installed. Keep XP VMs isolated from production networks and take snapshots before major changes—Windows XP is unsupported and vulnerable, so avoid exposing targets to the open internet.

Member Avatar for JorgeM

For network connectivity, a logical Windows "home" network is not needed. If you are pen-testing, all you need is to ensure that all of your hosts are accessbile on the network. If you have bridged the adapter virtual NICs with the one on the host computer, as long as they are all configured on the same subnet, you should have connectivity.

Have you verfiied that each of the hosts can PING each other by IP?

Is there a specific reason why you are trying to create a Windows "home group". The home group concept is really for sharing resources, not for network connectivity.

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