I have an Echoprint local webserver (uses tokyotyrant, python, solr) set up on a Linux virtual machine.
I can access it through the browser or curl in the virtual machine using http//localhost:8080 and in the non-virtual machine (couldn't find out how to say it better) I use the IP on the virtual machine also with the 8080 port.
However, when I try to access it through my android on the same wifi I get a connection refused error.
Both "localhost" and "127.0.0.1" are local loopback interfaces only: they only make sense within the same machine. From your Android device, assuming it's on the same wifi network as your machine, you'll need to use the actual IP address of your main machine: you can either find that from the network settings of that machine, or from your router's web interface.
Difficulty accessing local webserver