127.0.0.1 ip address

[Sarvesh A Dhuri]

Hi

Why 127.0.0.1 ip address is used for loopbak , why not any other

Thanks in advance

[Steven E. Protter]

As far as I know, the decision was arbritrary or based on some kind of mathematical forumula.

Another useless tidbit. The root user was orginally named God because it could do anything. Someone changed the name to root probably due to poltical correctness concerns.

SEP

[Simon Hargrave · Accepted solution]

Um....it just is! 127.0.0.0 is the subnet reserved by IANA, as defined in RFC 3330.

http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3330.html

In reality, 127.X.X.X is your loopback address, they should all respond to ping.

[Fabio Ettore]

Hi,

already SEP and Simon directed you on the right way.
It was a decision of IANA.

It can be used for troubleshooting.
For example if you have telnet problems in order to connect to an HP-UX system then you can launch

# telnet localhost
or
# telnet 127.0.0.1

If it works then it is a newtork problem/setting and no about telnet service on HP-UX system.

HTH.

Best regards,
Fabio