Woo-hoo! Thanks a bunch, Steve.
I take it that worked then?!

A further plus of the virtual host approach is taking it to the next step of allowing outside access to your local dev Xampp install via a dynamic dns.
Obviously it goes without saying about the security risk and the steps you need to take to mitigate this, and only do it when you need to and not all the time.

But why do such a thing?
Well for mobile testing so you don't have to root the phone to modify the hosts file, and you can also call anyone you like and ask them to check it out and you can fiddle with it there and then, locally.
And also you can use a browser testing site to do mass tests.
And if you are testing a connector with some other application that needs real internet access.