Using VBox as a server: what IP address to pick?

[Asbestos]

Hi all,

I'm setting up my first local server by creating a virtual Debian machine in VBox, to which I want to connect from my main computer. The idea is to have a LAMP server running that I can access for testing.

I have never set up a server before, and this may be a silly question, but how do I know what IP address to choose? Can I just make one up?

All the instructions for setting up LAMP servers include some variation of the line

Now we will change that to a static IP address for this you need to edit Edit /etc/network/interfaces and enter your ip address details (in this example setup I will use the IP address 172.19.0.10):

When I use the IP 172.19.0.10 and restart the network services, I seem to lose any connection to the internet, so I feel like I must be doing something wrong...

And once I pick an IP address, am I right in thinking that I can just set the Network options on the virtual machine to be "Internal Networking," and then just point my browser on my main computer to the IP address?

Any help greatly appreciated!

[Sasquatch]

Read the User Manual, chapter 6, first to know what networking options you have to use. Internal networking won't work, as you lock the VM from the outside world. It can only communicate to other VMs set to Internal.

For the IP address, read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_network. That will tell you what ranges you can use. Basically, if you have a router, pick one outside the DHCP scope of it but still in it's range so your computer can access it.