Accessing a virtual PC from the host

This FAQ tells you how to configure your host PC to give you network access to your virtual PCs by creating a virtual private LAN. It is mostly taken from an [link http://blog.devstone.com/aaron/archive/2005/05/03/577.aspx]article by Aaron Zupancic[/link] plus a few other sites. I have seen this question asked several times so I thought I'd bundle it up into a FAQ. Note: this FAQ applies to Virtual PC - it's probably unnecessary in Virtual Server!

[ul][li]First, add the Local Loopback Adapter. This is accomplished (on WinXP) by:[ul]
[li]opening the 'Add Hardware Wizard' (from the Control Panel)[/li]
[li]indicating that 'Yes, I have already connected the hardware'[/li]
[li]selecting 'Add a new hardware device' at the bottom of the list[/li]
[li]selecting 'Install the hardware that I manually select from a list'[/li]
[li]selecting 'Network adapters'[/li]
[li]selecting 'Microsoft' and 'Microsoft Loopback Adapter'[/li][/ul][/li]
[li]Once it's been added, you configure the private network via 'Network Connections' in the Control Panel. I typically rename my network to 'Local Loopback Network' from 'Local Area Connection X'. I then assign it a unique, non-routable IP address (such as 172.10.0.1 or 192.168.99.1) - something that won't conflict with the various networks into which the host will be connected.[/li]
[li]Then, open your VPC and manually assign an IP address to it on the same subnet (e.g. 192.168.99.2).[/li]
[li]Edit the hosts file (found in %WINDIR%\System32\drivers\etc) to map the host name to its respective IP address.[/li][/ul]

More information:
[link http://support.microsoft.com/kb/839013]How to install the Microsoft Loopback adapter in Windows XP[/link]
[link http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/virtualserver/2005/proddocs/vs_operate_using_loopback.mspx?mfr=true]Using Microsoft Loopback Adapter[/link]

Hope that's useful!