I use Virtualbox (version 1.5.6_OSE) on Ubuntu Hardy with Windows XP as one of the (guest) virtual machines. In order to access my webserver installed on the host (real physical system (Ubuntu Hardy) I need to use the ip-address 10.0.2.2 (I use NAT in Virtualbox’s network settings) from Windows XP (or any other guest operating system) and edit the hosts (c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts) file with the Virtual Host names I use on the host. This allows me to access the Virtual Host based websites to be accessed from the Windows XP operating system.

An example hosts file on Windows XP:

# make sure there's at least one space between the ip-address and the virtual host name
127.0.0.1 localhost
10.0.2.2 SOME_VIRTUAL_HOST_NAME


Replace SOME_VIRTUAL_HOST_NAME with a real Virtual Host name. In my case I use the extension .dev to indicate a local project in development, so it could be something like burobjorn.dev