Accessing macOS localhost from Parallels Desktop IE or Edge

access-mac-localhost-from-parallels-desktop-ie-edge.md

Access macOS localhost from IE or Edge within Parallels Desktop

This issue is so infuriating that I'm going to take some time to write about it.

1. MOST IMPORTANT. Your local development server must be bound to IP address 0.0.0.0. Some do this by default, but many don't. You need to make sure that you run your local server with correct IP bindings. You may need to provide additional flags to your serve commands e.g. polymer serve --hostname domain.local, hugo serve --bind 0.0.0.0. If you use a named domain like domain.local, it has to be defined in /etc/hosts and pointing at 0.0.0.0.

2. My Parallels setting is using Shared Network, nothing special there.

3. Open macOS Terminal and type ifconfig. Look for the value under vnic0 > inet. It is typically 10.211.55.2.

4. You can use this IP address from IE or Edge in Parallels Desktop. Don't forget the port number and protocol, e.g. http://10.211.55.2:3000

5. It's annoying to remember this IP all the time, so you can edit C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc (search for Notepad app and right-click to Run as Administrator, then search for this file from within Notepad so that you can actually edit it) and give that IP address a name, e.g. localhost.mac

Save my life. Thanks.

Thanks. It works fine except when I try to define localhost.mac. You don't write which file to edit, but I assume it is host? I tried to define localhost.mac to the IP that works, but I get 'Invalid Host header'

Try "localmac" instead of localhost.mac. Working well for me. Binding to localhost did not work. Simply chaning to localmac fixed it.

Thanks for sharing, works like a charm

I was not able to connect to http://10.211.55.2:3000. I had to connect to the secure site with https://10.211.55.2:3000. Of I had to accept the certificate error as well.

This finally made it work. Spent nearly two hours on this. And then realized I had to connect with https like the above comment.

Thank you sir.

If using Laravel + artisan

php artisan serve --host=0.0.0.0

# See other options with
php artisan serve --help

And then just visit http://10.211.55.2:8000/ in your VM's Internet Explorer.

thanks very much

I get a blank page with React on http://10.211.55.2:8000

Does this doesn't work on react?

Seems like the interface is now called bridge100, but the key was binding the dev server to 0.0.0.0. Thx!