How can I access my XAMPP vhosts from a test browsers running inside Virtual Box?

Question

Currently I'm doing development using XAMPP on OSX Snow Leopard. For Windows IE testing I want to use Virtual Box. How can I configure Virtual Box to let me access my local machine and various Apache vhosts?

I run my XAMPP test sites on port 8888. Hopefully this does not make things more complex.

Answer 1

Easiest way would be

use bridged networking on the vbox

edit your xp hosts file : windows/system32/drivers/hosts

the file should be setup to point the domains of you vhosts to your Apple Macs ip address.

eg:

192.168.0.2 vdomain.co.uk 

Then you can point your xp machines web browser to vdomain.co.uk:8080/ and browse as normal