Friday, April 23, 2010

There's no place like 127.0.0.1





The IP address 127.0.0.1 is a special purpose address reserved for use on each computer. 127.0.0.1 is conventionally a computer's loopback address.

Network software and utilities can use 127.0.0.1 to access a local computer's TCP/IP network resources. Messages sent to loopback IP addresses like 127.0.0.1 do not reach outside to the local area network (LAN) but instead are automatically re-routed by the computer's own network adapter back to the receiving end of the TCP/IP stack.

Typically all IP addresses in the range 127.0.0.1 - 127.255.255.255 are reserved for private use, but 127.0.0.1 is by convention the loopback address in almost all cases.

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