Connect localhost from VMWare Fusion using MAMP

I’m in the process of setting up a development environment on my mac. I’ve set up IE8 testing by converting Microsoft’s VPC images to a VMware compatible image. So the next thing I need to do is view my local webserver from VMware. Typing http://localhost doesn’t work because the virtual machine is an entity in itself so localhost is local to the virtual machine.
Having done a little of this in the past I knew the hosts file in folder c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc would need an entry, mapping my Mac’s IP address to a domain name. Sean Sperte reveals a secret VMware IP address that is particularly handy when you use a laptop because a laptop’s IP address is not likely to remain static. I’ll quote Sean here:

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 macserver

… and save. Afterwards refresh the VM’s DNS cache by typing ipconfig /flushdns in a command line window.

This worked perfectly for me.
Reference: http://www.rowlando.com/blog/2009/01/11/reaching-localhost-from-vmware-virtual-machines-on-a-mac/