Windows – Wireshark cannot see traffic from a VirtualBox guest on Windows 7

virtualboxwindows 7wireshark

I have been trying to use Wireshark to capture some traffic that comes from a virtual machine.

The setup is:

  • Windows 7 host
  • Ubuntu guest
  • VirtualBox 4

I send some packets from the guest to the host or another IP in the host LAN. The packets get there, but Wireshark cannot see them.

I have run Wireshark on both the guest and the host. Curiously, if I send the packet to another computer, the packets are captured without problem in the second machine. I don't understand how I cannot capture the packets in the machine that is sending them.

How should I setup VirtualBox, Windows 7 or Wireshark in order to capture the packets sent by the guest machine?

Best Answer

When guest OS is set up, a network interface is assigned to it.
Is wireshark listening on that interface?
In linux, there is an option to use "any" interface, which listens on all possible network interfaces, but I don't know if such option exists on the windows.

Here is explained that wireshark in windows has difficulties listening on loopback interface, the interface used when machine sends messages to it self.

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