Unable to access localhost from OSX VirtualBox Windows 8.1 IE11

Question

I have already referred to some links:

• Launch, i.e. on your Mac for free
• This stream
• And this stream

I am using OSX 10.10.5 and VirtualBox 5.0.16. I am trying to debug some web applications in IE11 using the free virtual machine that Microsoft provides from this site . I am using a Win 8.1 and IE11 image.

My understanding is that I should just configure the VM hosts file, and then I can access localhost through 10.0.2.2 . However, this did not happen.

I tried various entries:

• 10.0.2.2 localhost
• 10.0.2.2 outer
• 10.0.2.2 subdomain.localhost - one thread suggested trying this

I also tried changing the network settings for the image in VirtualBox. I tried both NAT and Bridged without success ...

No matter what I put in the IE address bar, it tells me that the page cannot be displayed. I tried:

• http://localhost
• http://localhost:80
• http://localhost:8888
• http://outer
• http://10.0.2.2
• http://10.0.2.2:3000
• http://10.0.2.2:80

No combination of address / host file configurations seems to do this. One thread suggested trying ping 10.0.0.2 on the virtual machine command line. I tried, and he seems to answer; the output indicates that 4 packets were sent and received.

I am very upset at this moment and do not know how to proceed further. He also tried this using the Win7 IE11 VM image and had no luck. Other threads on SO seem to suggest that I can just visit 10.0.2.2 with how the virtual machine is configured out of the box. If anyone has any suggestions or can point me in the right direction, that would be very helpful!