LinuxQuestions.org - Virtualbox networking madness!

I installed Virtualbox OE 1.5.4 on my Ubuntu 7.10 host. I then setup, or tried to setup, several static tap devices. It's working Ok except for two weird little problems.

1. I can't ping my host from my guest
2. My host eth0, which is set for static IP, doesn't get it's IP assigned on boot without a little help.

I've been reading Virtualbox Networking posts from many different sources for a couple of hours now and just can't find a reasonable solution. My br0 and tap devices pull the IP addresses that I assigned them but my eth0 only pulls an IPV6 address without the IPV4 address. I've put in a workaround to bring up my eth0 with ifconfig in my /etc/rc.local but that's ugly for sure.

My VBox Guest can ping all the other IPs in my internal network with no problem. The Guest also has access to the Internet over my router with no problem. The Guest just can't seem to see my Host which is getting very annoying.

Any help would be much appreciated!

/etc/network/interfaces
auto lo eth0 br0 tap0 tap1 tap2
iface lo inet loopback

iface tap0 inet static
address 192.168.178.18
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.178.1
tunctl_user ddales

iface tap1 inet static
address 192.168.178.17
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.178.1
tunctl_user ddales

iface tap2 inet static
address 192.168.178.16
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.178.1
tunctl_user ddales

iface br0 inet static
address 192.168.178.100
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.178.1
bridge_ports eth0 tap0

iface eth0 inet static
eth0 promisc
address 192.168.178.5
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.178.1

/etc/rc.local # so my Host eth0 gets it's IP
ifconfig eth0 192.168.178.5 255.255.255.0 up
exit 0

ifconfig -a
br0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:12:3F:77:8F:8A
inet addr:192.168.178.100 Bcast:192.168.178.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::212:3fff:fe77:8f8a/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:2955 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2241 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1754295 (1.6 MB) TX bytes:387133 (378.0 KB)

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:12:3F:77:8F:8A
inet addr:192.168.178.5 Bcast:192.168.178.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::212:3fff:fe77:8f8a/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:466225 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:286539 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:625664279 (596.6 MB) TX bytes:28624509 (27.2 MB)
Base address:0xcce0 Memory:f9ee0000-f9f00000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:423 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:423 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:140457 (137.1 KB) TX bytes:140457 (137.1 KB)

tap0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:FF:C5:25:6C:1E
inet addr:192.168.178.18 Bcast:192.168.178.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::2ff:c5ff:fe25:6c1e/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:82863 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:145245 errors:0 dropped:373 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:500
RX bytes:5998681 (5.7 MB) TX bytes:206818953 (197.2 MB)

tap1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:FF:F2:6F:09:94
inet addr:192.168.178.17 Bcast:192.168.178.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::2ff:f2ff:fe6f:994/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:73 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:500
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

tap2 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:FF:C2:63:9A:26
inet addr:192.168.178.16 Bcast:192.168.178.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::2ff:c2ff:fe63:9a26/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:74 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:500
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)