apache access using host name

As deresh implies - "localhost" is the loopback address - i.e. 127.0.0.1

If you use this address on any other domain pc - you most likely will get no page at all.

you need to go to http://<ip_address> (or as you have said http://system)

Hi,
i am accessing webpages like http://localhost ot http://127.0.0.1 it's working.
But i want to access webpage in  my Lan so that system also Wamp is installed.
so i try to access my system using system name(eg.my  system name: Bala)
so
http://bala/ it's not working , what i do to access this way.

What about - as I said:

http://<ip address>

you need to have some kind of dns servise running on your LAN, because apache does DNS lookups for that nam, but not for netbios or as you have said system name.

but you could easily "fake" dns on your local network:

open C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts with text editor and put bala after localhost like this:

127.0.0.1 localhost bala

and then save this file. now you can access http://bala from your computer ( where wamp is installed)

for other computers on your lan to have access to http://bala you will need to put this line in theirs  C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts :


192.168.0.1 bala


if your local lan adress for bala ( computer that has wamp installed) is different from 192.168.0.1 then put that address instead.

hi cybersoft,

localhost on any machine that uses TCP/IP would always refer to the local machine that you are currently physically logged on.  This is the "fake" DNS name for 127.0.0.1  This is sometimes called loopback address.  This is required for TCP/IP protocol to fuction properly on a machine.  This address/name would always refer to local machine.

more information on this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/127.0.0.1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Localhost

Back to your question: if you intend to use this to replace the other machine on your lan -- i am afraid this may not work.  (to my knowledge).

I am guessing your intention to work on the web application you had on your machine.  Some application (AFAIK), would (by default) have a default restriction (during installation) to allow access from localmachine.  this is why the documentation always refer you to browse to http://localhost/

I believe it would be helpful if you could elaborate further on your problem --- what is the application.

comment from bala -- above, may be what you are looking at here.   also look at the DNS portiong (in that comment).  Hosts file would be a solution if you are in a small network -- but in large organization, where hundreds of machine (or more), this would be a nightmare to maintain -- solution, DNS.

check if the comment from bala works... we would take it from there.

HTH
cheeres.

Hi deresh,
i changed C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts with text editor and put bala after localhost like this:

127.0.0.1 localhost bala
 i restarted mysystem also  . But it's not working.

this ( your last post) will only work from your local machine or the machine where you have installed wamp!

if you want to be able to use address:

http://bala

for other computers on your lan to have access to http://bala you will need to put this line in THEIR  C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts :

in your web browser on other machines in your lan, then you must add:


192.168.0.1 bala

if your local lan adress for bala ( computer that has wamp installed) is different from 192.168.0.1 then put that address instead.

this must be don on every computer that wants to access http://bala

you can test if this is done correctly you can write:

ping bala


in command prompt on the machine you have set this up to see if it is set correctly.



but if you have large LAN you should use DNS server, as samri stated, but this is beyond scope of this question.

Hi,
I am checking my localhost system only (this system i installed wamp)
ping bala is working 100% but i try to access http://bala
i am getting  'Forbidden' error