How can I access the host machine from a Virtual one?

Question

I'm using VMWare Fusion to run Windows {OS} on my Mac. How can I access the host machine (my Mac) from the Windows virtual one? I tried localhost but that didn't work.

Answer 1

Local host will be default point to 127.0.0.1. You need to find the local ip address of the host computer (Mac) and use that instead.

Answer 2

You can also try connecting using the computer's Netbios name, which should resolve to the correct IP addresss so long as your networking settings are correct and there are no firewall issues.

Answer 3

You want the network on the VM to be Bridged -- this way, the VM and the host Mac are on the same network, on your router. Then you can use whatever address your Mac is actually using, usually 192.168.something or 10.0.something. You can find it on the Network control panel, or by using ifconfig in the Terminal. If your Windows VM has Bonjour installed, the "computer-name.local" name for the Mac should work too.

The other VM network settings create nested networks, either completely isolated (Host only), or "one way" out to the internet (NAT).