virtualbox.org

When running vbox how come i can ping from the vm to the host OS and not vice versa? The adapter is on NAT.

Read the Manual about NAT limitations.

Ok fair enough. What i am really looking for is for the host to access services on the guest. For example i have apache running on a linux vm, i want to access this from the host, do i have to configure port forwarding to do this?

Thanks

Used Bridged mode in the Guest Network Settings.

I can't, i am in an academic environment with static IP's

I would buy a cheap router then if you need this to work well. Other than that you will be spending a lot of time doing port forwards that IMHO simply is not worth the work since I can replace it with a 40 dollar piece of hardware.