Addressing localhost from a VirtualBox virtual machine [closed]

Question

I have a local test/development server (HTTP, of course), listening to port 8000.

I'm working on Linux, so to test the page on Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8, etc. I run a virtual machine using VirtualBox; I also need to see how it look on Firefox in a windows environment (fonts for instance are different).

In my real machine, I open the website simply using the URL http://localhost:8000, how do I address this localhost from the virtual machine?

Right now my workaround is to use the IP address. Any better ideas?

Answer 1

Googling turned this up: http://data.agaric.com/localhost-from-virtualbox-xp-install-ubuntu

It suggests using IP: http://10.0.2.2, and it worked for me.

So, I edited the hosts file, C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts, and added this entry:

10.0.2.2   outer 

If you're testing on IE8, remember to put http:// in the address bar. Just putting the ip directly will not work.

For example:

http://10.0.2.2:3000/ 

Answer 2

macOS

I'm running Virtual Box on macOS (previously OS X), using Virtual Box to test IE on Windows, etc.

Go to IE in Virtual Box and access localhost via http://10.0.2.2 for localhost, or http://10.0.2.2:3000 for localhost:3000.

I kept Network settings as NAT, no need for bridge as suggested above in my case. There is no need to edit any config files.