Most of us (developers) already use virtualization in some form for testing, but in order to take advantage of this particular environment – MAMP with virtual hosts – we need to update the hosts file on the virtual machine so that it resolves the domains to the Mac's IP.
One catch: if you’re on a latop, chances are the Mac’s IP will change often. That’s why we need to get the secret IP the VM uses to talk to the Mac. Here’s how we find it:
Type ifconfig vmnet1 into a Terminal window. You should get a return like this:
vmnet1: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet 192.168.115.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.115.255
ether 00:50:56:c0:00:01
The 'inet' number is your 'secret' IP (in my case, 192.168.115.1).
Now that we have that number, we can edit the hosts file on the VM. We find it in: C:/WINDOWS/system32/drivers/etc.
Just open the host file with Notepad, and add each virtual host (domain) on it’s own line at the end of the document, like so:
192.168.115.1 dev.triumphofgrace.com
and save. Afterwards refresh the VM’s DNS cache by typing ipconfig /flushdns in a command line window.
(Do this for each virtual host you added in VHX.)
Voila! Now you should be able to access the custom virtual hosts you created in VHX on your PC using that wonderful browser we all love, Internet Explorer.