Accessing the XAMPP of my host from my guest?

[joao]

I have a XAMPP install on my Vista host, I'd like to access from my Win7 guest.

I'd like to save the fact that it's a subdomain installation with fake domains like local.localhost, but from I'm vaguely aware this will be impossible because the way to do it is by port forwarding (is it?).

Though I'd much rather prefer a subdomain access style, I guess I have to do this, but how? Port forwarding my host ip to my router, and then the router to my guest, but what on earth do people mean when they say this?

I get that the host ip should be port forwarded to something like 192.168.0.x, but then sending this ip to my guest is something I don't understand.

This of course, if http://local.localdomain, or even http://localhost isn't possible from the guest, which would be a pity. I even tried sharing the xampp folder, which obviously didn't work as there was some sort of httpd problem, whatever that is.

[Perryg]

Use Bridged since you have a router instead of NAT or if you want to keep the guest isolated use host-only instead.
See Chapter 6 Virtual networking in your VirtualBox users manual.