Name Resolution for NAT Doesn't Work on Windows Host if One of Two DNS Servers Goes Down

[lherrera]

My virtualbox image couldn't communicate with the external network today after one of our DNS servers went down. Windows applications continue to work since they switched to using a secondary name server, but VirtualBox couldn't manage.

For example, Windows reports the following:

C:\> ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : PCSHPQL0062982

... Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: ...

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.91.218.197

10.27.206.111

...

When 10.91.218.197 is unavailable, all applications except VirtualBox continue to work normally. Virtual machines cannot resolve names, even after restarting VirtualBox. Changing the DNS setup of the guest by explicitly listing the secondary DNS entry above fixes the problem. Although that works, it is an undesirable solution since the DNS configuration on the host changes depending on its location (office, home, VPN) and it would require the guest to be manually setup everytime I change locations. VirtualBox should use secondary DNS servers on the host when a primary one becomes unavailable.

After a lot of research, this gave me a clue: ​http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=70&sid=f118052cd5e42c391dda527edf7ecb3d

[Frank Mehnert]

This was fixed in VirtualBox 2.2.0. Please check version 2.2.2.