Understanding Packet Level for IP 127.0.0.1 and Localhost

[Chromium]

hey everyone,

so I know that 127.0.0.1 or localhost just loops back to your local machine. However, I don't understand what occurs on the packet level when you actually type in 'localhost' or '127.0.0.1' One of my co-workers speculated that each computer has some sort of internal name-resolver program that, when a user types in those special strings, is automatically called & just re-directs back to the local computer. Does this sound valid?

Does anyone know what exactly happens on the packet level?

thanks,

--Jonathan

 

[CRGreathouse]

One of my co-workers speculated that each computer has some sort of internal name-resolver program that, when a user types in those special strings, is automatically called & just re-directs back to the local computer. Does this sound valid?

Yep, that's pretty much it. Anything outside your computer that somehow gets a loopback address will just drop it anyway, so your computer has to handle it. This is what you want, of course, since it's much faster than a real network connection.