Testing in IE6 from OSX: VirtualBox settings or good alternative

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+4 Q:

Testing in IE6 from OSX: VirtualBox settings or good alternative

I'm needing to test web applications in IE6,7 from my OSX workstation. I develop and run test servers locally on my OSX system. Currently have VirtualBox running Windows XP.

Question: How do I view pages in IE (the guest os) that are hosted from OSX (the host os)?

From Firefox on the host (OSX) the page can be viewed at localhost:8084, or localhost:8000 AND the workstation's IP of 192.168.1.100:8084 or :8000 (depending if I'm developing with Tomcat/JSP or Django).

VBox Network options: NAT, Bridged, Internal, Host Only. I'm currently using Bridged.

+2 A:

Bridged mode allows the guest OS to use an IP on the same network as your host. Because of this, you should be able to access the page the same way- via your workstation's IP. The only reason I could see this not working would be if the port on your host is only accessible via localhost, of if the web server only serves to localhost.

Matt Luongo 2010-03-02 20:24:23

Bridged modes seems to do it. I was able to get Django test server to easily listen on the IP and port. If I knew Tomcat better, it would probably work just as well. I ended up running a Django proxy to Tomcat since I better understand Django 'runserver' than xml config nonsense of Tomcat. Its a hack, but it was quick and easy for me to set up.

Off Rhoden 2010-03-05 13:11:20

In a tutorial I used to help me get a folder from my host OS shared with a guest OS I noticed that the guest OS refers to the host OS as vboxsvr, example \\vboxsvr\sharename.

If you try to access your website from the guest OS via http://vboxsvr:8084 or http://vboxsvr:80000 it might bring up your site assuming that vboxsvr is a universal way to refer to the host OS from the guest.

You may also need to make sure you have the guest additions installed.

ObligatoryMoniker 2010-03-02 20:30:07

This makes sense under a NAT network setup. While referring to the host as vboxsrv is correct, if the host's port is closed or the web server is set to only respond to localhost, it won't make a difference. In addition, machines outside of the private host-guest network won't be able to access the guest without setting up port forwarding from host to guest.

Matt Luongo 2010-03-03 04:41:08

So since the original poster is using Bridged networking this will not work?

ObligatoryMoniker 2010-03-04 22:59:13

I use a tool from the site: http://spoon.net/browsers/

I don't know if this works on OSX but it works amazing on windows. I can view any of my web page developments on any web browser including IE 6,7,8 firefox, safari, opera etc. Check it out. I use it almost everyday for my company. Let me know if it work on OSX.

bvandrunen 2010-03-04 20:28:34

Looks to only support Windows, and my test page would have to be exposed to the public- neither are desirable. But the service still has value. Thanks.

Off Rhoden 2010-03-05 13:06:00

Thank "Off Rhoden"...good to know in the future. What I like to do is to keep my page private is to use the "private" + noindex feature in my wordpress blogs and then test. Just in case you ever switch to windows.

bvandrunen 2010-03-05 16:44:13

ansaurus

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Testing in IE6 from OSX: VirtualBox settings or good alternative

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