Simple MAMP/MAMP Pro VirtualHosts in Parallels / Windows XP
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(This tip should also work similarly with Vista, Windows 7, etc.).
After browsing around a bunch of different forums, the MAMP site, and Parallels documentation, I was still flummoxed by Parallels' weird Shared Host networking behavior, which seemingly didn't allow me to access virtualhosts I set up with MAMP for developing sites locally.
After much experimentation, I found that the simplest way to be able to type in 'local.example.com' (or 'dev.example.com', if that's your style) in Internet Explorer on Windows, and get a virtual host running via MAMP on my Mac, is to do the following:
- In Parallels' options for your virtual machine, go to Hardware, then Network 1, and choose 'Default Adapter' for 'Type'.
- Restart Windows in Parallels.
- Get your Mac's IP address (for your WiFi adapter or Ethernet; whatever's the primary interface).
- Open your Windows Hosts file and add your virtual hosts:
- Start > Run... and enter "c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts" (use Notepad to open).
- Add a line like the following to the file and save: "[MAC_IP_ADDRESS] local.example.com"
You should now be able to access whatever site you have defined at local.example.com in MAMP via Windows Internet Explorer.
Update: It looks like this will work if you choose the 'Shared Network' type as well; go figure. Parallels' networking support is a bit more dodgy than VMWare Fusion (which I'd been using on my old MacBook Pro for quite a while without a problem... when I bought a MacBook Air, I thought I'd try out Parallels again).
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