What Is A Loopback Address?

A loopback address is an IP address which a device can send signals to which will send signals back to the same device. In otherwords, it's a shortcut for your computer to refer to itself.

In IPv4 the loopback address is 127.0.0.1

In IPv6 the loopback address is ::1

The loopback address is often given the alias localhost for more convenient usage during development.