Question

Just as the question says, what is the Microsoft Loopback Adapter, and as a bonus, what scenerios as a developer would it be useful? I’ve noticed it’s been required when installing a couple of applications to my machine, but aside from guessing, I’ve never have had a sturdy understanding of it’s functionality.

I’ve read a couple of articles online, but nothing really made me “get it”. While I don’t need a hugely complex answer, a little explaination would be very useful.

Thanks!
George

Answer 1

Well, the best answer I can give you is a few links.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loopback
The key sentence here is

“Any traffic that a computer program
sends to the loopback interface is
immediately received on the same
interface.”

http://www.juniper.net/techpubs/software/erx/erx50x/swconfig-system-basics/html/system-mgmt15.html
This may be a little more obscure if you don’t know networking well.

Basically, it’s a fake network interface, useful for tests and stability. In practice, most likely something you’ll never have to worry about (or you’d already know about it!)