Configuring website and network access between XP host and Win2003 with MOSS 2007 VPC

I assume that you have a XP host which has a VPC image with win2003 and moss 2007 installed but the host will not be able to access the sharepoint sites due to network related issues.
So its time to setup and enable website access between host and the VPC. I assume few things before you apply this solution:
1. You have a rotuer and you access internet
2. You have disabled DHCP option in router and have given manual IP with you subnet like 192.168.1* or 10.10.1.* to your machine and VPC
Then check my blog here that covers the steps of converting the win2003 VPC from a workgroup into a domain.
Now you need to do is to setup XP to recognize the win2003 server. I found a solution of doing so without adding my XP to the domain that you just created.
On our host machine irrespective of you using your lan or wireless card; just double click the icon in system tray or goto start->settings->network connections and right click the active adapter and select properties. The adapter properties window will appear; select TCP/IP and click properties. refer to below snapshot

The trick is under "Preferred DNS" enter the manual IP of the win2003 server running in VPC as the server now has a DNS installed. In order to allow your host to access internet as well enter the IP of your ISP under "Alternate Preferred DNS" so that internet is accessible

If you wanted to enter the alternate Preferred DNS of your ISP then you can add by clicking advance button and enter the IP as shown under

And you are done; hopefully you shall be able to access the sharepoint websites. I doubt that you will face any further issue but by chance if you get stuck then you may try below section as well.
The last thing to do in both host and VPC is to add an entry of the IP address of both in host file. Just type drivers in the start->run to and windows will open windows explorer windows; go into etc folder and double click the hosts file; select notepad and open the file; 
In XP host file add entry in a new line with 192.168.1.4 myserver and in win2003 VPC add entry in a new line with 192.168.1.3 xphost
By following above information you can have multiple development environments on a single machine and explore the benefits of VPC.


Hope it was useful