Installed CentOS 6 in VirtualBox, installed/configured CUPS, Cannot Access through Host Machine

[fjkvasnikoff]

Hello Everyone!

I am going to state the obvious: I am a complete newbie to the CentOS/Linux world and therefore will ask a bunch of ignorant questions. Apologies. Though I am trying to make my questions and pursuits as realistic as possible.

Here is a synopsis of what I have done and what I am attempting to do (which, I might add, may or may not even be possible):

1. I am running on a Windows 7 (x64) machine and I recently installed CentOS 6.3 (Basic Server configuration) through VirtualBox through the great advice and help found around the tubes. The CentOS VM Basic server is up and running, meaning, to me anyway, I can get to the lovely shell/command line and do fun stuff!

2. I have cobbled together a plan to try and configure a CUPS (Common Unix Print System) installation and then a SAMBA installation to address printer access on our network. This, even to me, sounds a bit insane of a task for a newbie to take on. But Here I am. So, what I have done so far to setup the CUPS install:

I have, of course run yum install cups, and then through a series of fingernail biting and scratching my head I went ahead and configured the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf file through a combination of advice and how-tos that can be found on these sites:
Exhibit A: http://www.server-world.info/en/note?os=CentOS_5&p=cups
Exhibit B: http://blog.funnelfiasco.com/?p=271
Exhibit C: http://www.cups.org/articles.php?L230+T+Q

I would also add that I am such a newbie to the interface that I got thoroughly confused on how to exit and save out of vi! The google saved me in the end though.

At any rate, before I even get into the messy part of SAMBA or configuring printer drivers, I wanted to see if I could actually get access to the browser interface that all random sources around the inter-tubes assure me is there. But when I try to access this alter of truth from my host Win7x64 machine I get no good ju-ju. I assume I have totally missed something in the process of setting up the CentOS Basic Server or I have not properly set the appropriate configurations in VirtualBox.

Any advice/direction would be greatly appreciated and please be gentle with the ignorant! Thank in advance.

best
-f

P.S. I want to be sure that everyone knows this is for testing/dinking around purposes and by no means is being sent into production mode this instant. Just trying to get a grasp on thing here!

[scottro]

Don't worry, we were all newcomers once, though we're still grouchy. :-)

Anyway, this sounds standard. By default, VirtualBox uses a NAT (network address translation) network. What this means is that it's on a different subnet than its host.
Typically, most home routers give addresses in the range of 192.168.1.x or 192.168.0.x. A VirtualBox guest will take an address of 10.0.x.x, or maybe 10.x.x.x, I believe. At any rate, it will begin with 10.

This means that the host won't be able to reach it. (However, it should be able to reach the host). This is a slight extra layer of security as well, keeping the virtual machine isolated from the network.

If you want the virtual machine to be part of the network, you can used bridged networking. In the settings for a machine, you look for network. You will that it's NAT, but if you look at the menu (a dropdown box, I think, I'm not looking at it right now), there is an option for bridged. If you use that, it will appear as another host on your network, as opposed to just a guest on the host machine.

[fjkvasnikoff]

Scottro - Thanks so much for your quick response!

Surprisingly enough I had already set up VB with a bridged network connection - not because I knew that beforehand but the internet said I should. After playing around with things for a good long while today I figured out that the issue stemmed from how I was configuring the cupsd.conf file, specifically, the settings dictating access to the server. After I setup with *:631 I was able to get into the beast.

Now that I have my CUPS server up and running and having been able to print to one of my networked printers through the web interface on my host Win7x64 machine, I am now reading up on how to utilize SAMBA to share printer drivers to Windows (both x86 and x64) machines. Let us just say I am a bit confused, but I am getting there! Thanks again for your advice!