Access Linux VM Ware Install from Windows

Hey guys, I'm familiar with basic Linux and VM Ware concepts, but I'm running into an issue I can't figure out.

I'm running Red Hat Enterprise 5 on a VM Ware install on my laptop. The  problem is that the only way I can access the Linux server is to open  the VM Console through IE and determine what the current eth0 IP is and  use that to SSH with Putty.  I realize that if SSH was my only concern, I  could just use the Terminal app.

The problem is that I set this up to do Web Dev testing to match the  environments at work, so I need to be able to access via Zend,  DreamWeaver, etc.  Whenever I take my laptop to a different place, the  eth0 changes IP Addresses, which isn't very conducive to consistent access.

I've set up a static IP on the Linux Share, but Windows can't talk to the Linux side.

What am I missing?