Excellent! very clear answer! thanks for your help!
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Browse All Topicsusing Sun Virtualbox... Do I need a firewall on the XP system I created in virtualbox?
Sun Virtualbox is a free Virtual machine software, so I guess anyone using any VMware could answer this in a general sense. I'm a VM nub.
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I am using it as a second operating system. I like to use a Russian operating system to write to people in Russian by email etc. sometimes and rather than having an English system. Overkill perhaps, but it is the way I prefer to work. That way my English system is virgin of other languages. Thanks!!
I have decided to install the firewall in the VM system, given your remarks. I think it will be safer.
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by: b0lsc0ttPosted on 2009-07-02 at 00:22:25ID: 24761061
vanauden,
It depends on how the VM is set up. If it has Internet access then it should have a firewall, like any other computer using a router to access the Internet. The VM, for networking, basically uses your machine like a "server" so your machine's firewall and set up will offer some protection too.
Are you completely exposed without one as if you had the machine using a public IP? Definitely not. However can you benefit from one because of privacy, security, etc? Sure.
Personally I wouldn't worry about installing one just on a VM but I wouldn't remove it either if I had one from a machine I copied to make the VM. Also if a point of the VM is to test firewall on the machine then it would be key to have it installed. Even the networking I described above can be modified (at least in VMWare workstation) so you could basically bypass the "host" computer (for the VM) and make the VM more public.
Let me know if you have any questions or need more information.
b0lsc0tt