Modern computer networks require each device on the network to have a unique IP address. These addresses are used so that computers know how to communicate with each other and so that network equipment knows where to route the traffic crossing its path.
When using the ExacqVision Desktop Client application from a client workstation to connect to your ExacqVision Server application on another machine, perhaps on the other side of your office, you will need to enter the server’s IP address so the two machines can communicate.
However, TCP/IP includes some “shortcuts” that make routing communication more efficient when two applications running on the same machine need to communicate. These “shortcuts” are called loopback addresses and tell the machine not to bother sending the message out onto the network only to have the network send it right back.
127.0.0.1 is an IP address that always refers to “this machine”; the local computer. An ExacqVision Client can always connect to a server running on the same computer using the 127.0.0.1 IP address, regardless of the actual IP address being used by the NIC in the computer. The same can be said for “localhost,” which may be used in place of the address 127.0.0.1 in many applications. Both “localhost” and the address 127.0.0.1 refer to “this machine.”
Do not delete 127.0.0.1 or ‘localhost’ from your systems list. Using 127.0.0.1 instead of the actual IP address of the NIC ensures the fastest and least troublesome connection to the ExacqVision Server running on the same computer.
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The 127.0.0.1 loopback address is an IPv4 address. While IPv6 has been a growing protocol for several years, it is still primarily used by service providers and external routing. Within private networks such as offices and homes, the older IPv4 protocol is still standard.
In case you’re wondering, the loopback address in IPv6 can be written as:
0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1 or as ::1
At the time of this writing, ExacqVision Server does not support IPv6 addressing.
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