Access web UI from outside a VM?

[NPSTR107]

I'm trying to access qBittorrent's web UI from another PC on the same network, but qBittorrent is running inside a Linux VM, so it doesn't just work like it normally would.

 

It's something to do with how the network works inside the VM, and I'm trying to access the web UI from a PC outside of the VM.

 

I'm guessing it's something to do with port forwarding/proxy?

 

Here's some numbers.

HOST:                           Windows 10 Home (1903)

VIRTUALMACHINE:    Oracle VirtualBox (6.1.4 r136177)

VM OS:                         Lubuntu (18.04)

Running qBittorrent (v.4.0.3) AND PIA VPN (v.1.8)

 

Trying to access the web UI from another PC on my home network doesn't work as you can see on the right side of the photo. Whereas it works as expected within the VM on the left.

 

 

 

Anyone know how to get this working? (I don't need it to be remote, just simply want to access it when I'm at home).

[pbx2]

Find the IP of the VM and replace "127.0.0.1" with that so that it reads IP:20300

127.0.0.1 is bound as the IP of your local machine and therefore if qbittorrent isn't running on it, you won't see anything appear.

 

Your VPN may also prevent traffic from accessing it.

[NPSTR107]

28 minutes ago, pbx2 said:

Find the IP of the VM and replace "127.0.0.1" with that so that it reads IP:20300

127.0.0.1 is bound as the IP of your local machine and therefore if qbittorrent isn't running on it, you won't see anything appear.

I used the terminal in the VM with hostname -I | awk '{print $1}' which gave me the IP 10.0.2.15 and I put that in to qBit with 20300 and I'm still getting the same issue.

 

 

 

[pbx2]

Firewall could be an issue, Alongside your VPN.

I also see 2 different IPs in the nav bar, Does the one showing the page in your VM work on windows?

[NPSTR107]

13 minutes ago, pbx2 said:

Firewall could be an issue, Alongside your VPN.

I also see 2 different IPs in the nav bar, Does the one showing the page in your VM work on windows?

The one in the nav bar on the left doesn't work for either, not too sure why it was there. 

 

10.0.2.15:20300 works in the VM, and doesn't work with Windows even when I disconnected and quit the VPN. So, it may be the Firewall?

[NPSTR107]

I have also found out that there are no issues going the opposite way. Programs that are hosted on my normal PC with a web UI like Radarr can be accessed fine from within the VM.

 

[pbx2]

I'm not very familiar with how networking on Virtualbox works but it might have some weird routing that doesn't allow it to be accessed from the host, Have you tried a different computer or a phone? 

[NPSTR107]

7 minutes ago, pbx2 said:

Have you tried a different computer or a phone? 

Yes, same results as from Windows.

 

The ipconfig from the Windows side of things does show this. This is just numbers to me.

 

[AlexGoesHigh]

The problem is that your VM network is configured as NAT in virtualbox, you have to go into the VM config and change the network card in "attached as" config from NAT to bridge adapter, that will make the VM connect directly to your network like a physical device and have its own IP given by your router (or whatever device is your DHCP server), also reboot the VM (since its the easiest thing to do) or restart the network inside the VM to apply the network changes (i'm not sure if virtualbox or Linux itself is smart enough to recognize such a change in the network and adapt itself since i have never change this config on a running VM).

 

Another thing you can do is port forward the VM to localhost, again go to the network settings instead of changing from NAT to bridge adapter, press advance and open the port forward button at the bottom of the page and add a rule that binds the guest qbittorrent port to the same port on the host since its not a commonly used port like 80, with this option you don't have to change any config in your VM nor qbittorrent, all you have to do is open localhost:port on your browser to access qbittorrent.

 

If you have more problems post screen of the "ip a" command in linux and your network config in virtualbox

[Windows7ge]

You need to bridge the VM's virtual adapter to the hosts. This basically creates a virtual switch which will give your VM an IP address from the local Router enabling you to view the WebUI. You can reserve an IP for the VM if necessary in your router.