What is the use of 127.0.0.1, "localhost" ?

[Barry Margolin]

In article <d2us1m$2d9j$1 at sf1.isc.org>,
 campdefabes at gmail.com (Espronceda) wrote:

> .
> I know we can use localhost to make sure the TCPIP stack is properly
> installed, by using "ping 127.0.0.1".
> But I suspect it is there for something else ..
> .
> By example, using Sysinternals "TCPVIEW" tool, I see that FIREFOX
> opens a connection between 127.0.0.1:3054 and 127.0.0.1:3053 ...
> Dont know the use it has but this is not impotant now.
> .
> My question is : WHAT OTHER USES DOES 127.0.0.1 HAVE ?
> Some ideas/samples, any pointer ...

What does this have to do with the BIND nameserver software?

Anyway, localhost is used whenever a system wants to talk to itself 
using a network protocol.  Quite a few applications use it for 
communications between modules; this design makes it easy to extend to 
support network communications.  For instance, BIND 8's "ndc" command 
was replaced with BIND 9's "rndc", which supports remote control because 
it uses a network socket, rather than only a Unix-domain socket.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar at alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***