Question : ping request in Vmware linux instance

I have a vmware-linux instance. I would like to access this instance from Host-operating system which is win-XP with the putty session.
Prior to that, I had tested the ping request within linux env to hostname
$ ping <&host name of the PC. . >

It gives a message specified host is not reachable. To diagnose issue, I checked the entries in following two files /etc/hosts and  /etc/sysconfig/network and found that ip address had mentioned against hostname  are in sysc.
I believe because of this  reason couldnt able to manage ping from host-OS to this Guest-OS.

Answer : ping request in Vmware linux instance

it is DHCP