You are now entering the PC Anatomy portal

Localhost is the hostname for a computer that refers to itself, allowing it to communicate with its own network services without sending data over the internet. It acts as a "virtual server" on your machine, commonly associated with the loopback address \(127.0.0.1\). This is crucial for software development, enabling developers to test applications locally before deploying them to a live server.  

Self-referential address: When you access localhost, your computer is essentially sending a request to itself, which is then looped back. This is why it's also known as the loopback address. 

IP address: The most common IP address for localhost is \(127.0.0.1\). Other addresses in the \(127.0.0.0\) range can also be used. 

Development and testing: Developers use localhost to run and test web applications, databases, and other services on their own machine. This provides a safe, private environment for making changes without affecting the live internet.

No internet connection needed: You can access and test localhost services even if you are not connected to the internet.

Local server: A "localhost server" is a software configuration that uses this loopback address to create a local environment for running and testing applications.

Website blocking: The localhost address can be manually configured in a computer's host file to block certain websites. By pointing a domain to \(127.0.0.1\), any attempt to access that site will be rerouted to the local machine instead of the live site.