The name localhost is reserved by the

Internet Engineering Task Force The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a standards organization for the Internet standard, Internet and is responsible for the technical standards that make up the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP). It has no formal membership roster ...

(IETF) as a domain name label that may not be installed as a

top-level domain A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domain name, domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the DNS root zone, root zone of the nam ...

in the

Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed name service that provides a naming system for computers, services, and other resources on the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information ...

(DNS) of the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

Reserved DNS names

In 1999, the

reserved the DNS labels , , , and so that they may not be installed into the root zone of the Domain Name System. The reasons for reservation of these top-level domain names is to reduce the likelihood of conflict and confusion. This allows the use of these names for either documentation purposes or in local testing scenarios.

Conventional use

The name

localhost In computer networking, localhost is a hostname that refers to the current computer used to access it. The name ''localhost'' is reserved for loopback purposes. It is used to access the network services that are running on the host via t ...

is a commonly defined hostname for the

loopback Loopback (also written loop-back) is the routing of electronic signals or digital data streams back to their source without intentional processing or modification. It is primarily a means of testing the communications infrastructure. Loopback c ...

interface in most

TCP/IP The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suite are ...

systems, resolving to the

IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is assigned to a device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. IP addresses serve two main functions: network interface i ...

es in

IPv4 Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the first version of the Internet Protocol (IP) as a standalone specification. It is one of the core protocols of standards-based internetworking methods in the Internet and other packet-switched networks. ...

and for

IPv6 Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communication protocol, communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic ...

. As a top-level domain, the name has traditionally been defined statically in host DNS implementations with address records (A and AAAA) pointing to the same loopback addresses. Any other use conflicts with widely deployed algorithms relying on this convention.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Localhost Top-level domains Internet properties established in 1999 sv:Toppdomän#Generiska toppdomäner