trouble accessing localhost from ie7 running on parallels (win xp) on mac os x

Question

I'm running the app engine devserver on localhost:8080, and want to access it from ie7 running on parallels.

I've tried all of the tips here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/61449/how-do-i-access-the-host-from-vmware-fusion

And they seem like they should work, particularly accessing via the gateway ip address. I've also

sudo ipfw add allow tcp from 8080 to 8089

for good measure. Still no dice. I can access the external internet from ie7. The connection settings on parallels are set to 'Shared networking'. I'm out of ideas.

Answer 1

You're not by any chance running it on localhost/127.0.0.1 on OS X and are trying to get at it using localhost/127.0.0.1 from XP?

If so, that's likely to be your problem - I would seriously doubt that the two instances of the OS share the loopback interface as that's specific to the OS.

I'd run it on OS X using the local IP and not localhost, then use the IP address to access it from XP. This should work if the XP box can see the host.