Unable to ssh into Ubuntu VM running w/ a NAT ip address even w/ openssh-server installed

This is a fresh install of Ubuntu Server 12.10 running VirtulBox 4.8.2 on a Kubuntu 12.10 host. I have Ubuntu Server running w/ a NAT'ed IP Address (10.0.2.X or something like that). I want to ssh from my Kubuntu laptop to my VBox server so during install I selected OpenSSL Server or whatever the option is. Outside of that selection there is nothing custom done and the system is completely up to date.

So when I try to ssh to that device I get a timeout response and am unable to connect. The service is running on my VM but nothing happens. I also cannot ping the VM either.

Is there something I'm missing? A firewall between my VM and Host? Not quite sure

Thanks for the help in advance,

Jonathan

The problem is the NAT. When you are using NAT, VirtualBox basically acts like a router making a subnet, and just like with a normal Router setup you can't access a device on a lower subnet. As I see it you have two options here:

1. Switch your VM to a "Bridged Adapter" mode(can be done even after an OS is installed) and then Reboot or Renew your Server's IP. Your VM should show up with a normal IP on your Network and then you can easily access it. I usually recommend this for Servers anyway because burying a Server defeats the use of one.

2. Make a Reverse SSH Tunnel. Basically instead of making a tunnel from your Host to the Guest Server, you do it the other way around. This is a pretty straight forward task and there's a nice HowTo to be found here: http://www.howtoforge.com/reverse-ssh-tunneling, Just use your Host's normal network IP and it should work. A user also posted a nice thing in the comments of the article about SSH Tunnels between 2 PCs with both being behind NATs.

Out of the above I still recommend #1 for obvious advantages to a server setup but if you really want to keep the Server Sandboxed then #2 should work fine.

You can of course also use port forwarding in virtual box:

1. Go to the VM settings
2. Select network
3. Click Port Forwarding
4. Fill out a row
   1. Give a useful name like 'SSH'
   2. Leave protocol as TCP
   3. Set Host IP as the host IP (eg: 127.0.0.1)
   4. Set Host Port as something like 10022
   5. Set Guest IP as the IP of the VM
   6. Set Guest port as 22 (or the SSH port)
5. Connect to the host details (eg: 127.0.0.1:10022)