Can't Connect to Host OS using VMWare Player

Question

I'm trying to set up xDebug on a Ubuntu server I have running in VMWare player on Windows 7. I have my webserver up and running, and I am able to connect to it fine from the host os. However, when I enable xDebug, it is completely unable to connect to the host os. My xDebug logs indicate that it is trying to establish a connection

I have a NAT network interface set up (my network environment won't allow me a bridged connection).

I can't ping the host os, or connect to it in any way. I set up a simple webserver, and was not able to download any pages from within the virtual machine. I am able to do so from the host os, even using its virtual ip address.

I've disabled both the host firewall and the firewall on the virtual machine.

I have no idea what might be wrong, but I suspect something to do with the network connection on the virtual machine. Does anyone have any ideas?