[virtualbox] Virtualbox "port forward" from Guest to Host

Here is my setup:

- Host: Windows XP
- Guest: Ubuntu 10.04
- Networking: NAT

I am setting an Apache web server on the Guest, but I want to be able to do this on the Windows machine:

- go to the browser, type http://localhost:8000

Also, I tried to change my networking to bridge and I got a new IP. But when I tried to do http://:8000, it says that it could not connect.

That's not possible. localhost always defaults to the loopback device on the local operating system.
As your virtual machine runs its own operating system it has its own loopback device which you cannot access from the outside.

If you want to access it e.g. in a browser, connect to it using the local IP instead:

http://192.168.180.1:8000

This is just an example of course, you can find out the actual IP by issuing an ifconfig command on a shell in the guest operating system.

Network communication Host -> Guest

Connect to the Guest and find out the ip address:

ifconfig 

example of result (ip address is 10.0.2.15):

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 08:00:27:AE:36:99
          inet addr:10.0.2.15  Bcast:10.0.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

Go to Vbox instance window -> Menu -> Network adapters:

• adapter should be NAT
• click on "port forwarding"
• insert new record (+ icon)
  • for host ip enter 127.0.0.1, and for guest ip address you got from prev. step (in my case it is 10.0.2.15)
  • in your case port is 8000 - put it on both, but you can change host port if you prefer

Go to host system and try it in browser:

http://127.0.0.1:8000

or your network ip address (find out on the host machine by running: ipconfig).

Network communication Guest -> Host

In this case port forwarding is not needed, the communication goes over the LAN back to the host.

On the host machine - find out your netw ip address:

ipconfig

example of result:

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.5.1

On the guest machine you can communicate directly with the host, e.g. check it with ping:

# ping 192.168.5.1
PING 192.168.5.1 (192.168.5.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.5.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=2.30 ms
...

Firewall issues?

@Stranger suggested that in some cases it would be necessary to open used port (8000 or whichever is used) in firewall like this (example for ufw firewall, I haven't tested):

sudo ufw allow 8000