[kolias]

I suspect what you are trying to achieve is not possible. A virtual machine cannot possibly bit-bang the host's parallel port 25000 times a second. Even if VirtualBox supported parallel ports, which it does not.

Your answer CitizenOfDream reminded me that I never had a cnc running on a VirtualBox and so that's my problem. Getting a new(used) PC to run Mach3 is impossible so the alternative is to get an external motion controller which should be good to connect either of the 2 BOB's I have as per attached pic. The BOB with 1 relay I bought from Australia but had no printer cable so I bought on line the BOB with the 3 relays which included the printer cable. Any suggestion which motion controller will be the best?

I also assume that my desktop with Windows10-PRO 62bit will be able to rum Mach3 with an external motion controller

Thank you