Here is list of what wed like to achieve in details:

Lunix guests can communicate between themselves using static IP addresses

Guests have names that resolve to static IP
Guests can access internet that is available through the host
Host can establish SSH/FTP sessions with guests using either IP or names
Here are the building materials that well have to our disposal:
Windows PX SP3 professional as a host
Virtual Box 3.0.8 (open source)
Oracle Enterprise Linux 4 update 5 as Linux Guest (no license needed)
My reasons for choosing particular software: Host O/S does not really matter, vi
rtualization software can run on many different platforms. Virtual Box is select
ed because it is an open source software produced by Sun Microsystems (which bel
ongs to Oracle now). Why Oracles Linux? This particular flavor of Linux is a modi
fied Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. Oracle has made a few adjustments that allow Or
acle 10g R2 database (32 bit) to install with no issues on it (usually, no addit
ional RPMs required). Since I am aiming to install Oracle on the guest(s) thus th
e choice of this Linux flavor.
If you still have a licensing question about Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL) I can
answer it. You only need a license if you want Oracles support. For learning pur
poses you do not need a license. If you will need to download some rpm libraries
and updates you can get those for free, the YUM configuration can be pointed to
a free repository (not discussed here).