localhost ok on 1 comp but not laptop on network?

4rxsid

Hi all,

This is really more of a networking question, but I hope somehere here has done this before.

I've got PHP, Apache and MySQL installed and running good on my desktop (win xp pro), a wireless router with a WEP key and a laptop with a wireless card. The laptop can access the net no problem.

I'm wondering, how can I access my localhost on my desktop....from my laptop? I've tried http://127.0.0.1 and http://localhost and I have an entry in my laptop's host file for 127.0.0.1 localhost.

Any ideas? Thanks.

nemonoman

find out the IP address that the router has assigned to your desktop. (It's on the support tab of the Status Panel for your connection). Then http://123.45.67.89 (or whatever).

Drakla

You can also edit your hosts file to create a shortcut to it - I've added this line to it to access the server on my laptop

192.168.123.135 toshi

Then I just type toshi into Firefox. If you can use your router's MAC control to give your computers fixed IP addresses so you never have to change things.

You might also have to set up forwarding rules in the router and tweak your firewall if you want external access.

Roger_Ramjet

127.0.0.1 localhost means 'this machine', or rather 'this netwrok card', whichever machine it is on, so when you type '127.0.0.1' or 'localhost' on your laptop it looks at itself.

This is absolute and cannot be altered by anything anyone does - it is hard coded into TCP/IP and the base code for your IP stack would need to be re-written to change it.

4rxsid

thanks for the reply nemonoman. that worked great. i'm wondering though, since my router (D-link di-624) is set up with DHCP (per my ISP) my I.P. will change on a regular basis. i think it's set for 1 week to expire (maximum allowed). i'd like to set up an "internal" domain. i tried setting up a "virtual server," but hosed my router and had to reboot it. is that the way to set up a domain on my local server? I also tried to set the Dynamic DNS (apparently this will allow a 'DNS' to change with the renewing I.P.!?!?) field but hosed the router again. I wasn't sure what to put for Server Address and Host Name. There is also a LAN "setting" that I've tried to no avail.

Any additional expert advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

P.S. the fields available for the virtual server are Name:, Private IP:, Protocol Type:, Private Port:, Public Port: and the fields available for LAN are IP Address (set to the IP of my router), Subnet Mask: (pre filled in) and Local Domain Name: (says optional and is blank right now) and Dynamic DNS fields are Server Address:, Host Name:, Username:, Password:

4rxsid

anyone configure a d-link router to give your computer a static i.p. or dns (preferred)? thanks.

Roger_Ramjet

There are too many d-link products to be able to answer this one precisely. Depending on the model how you do things. You should be able to set up the external interface to obtain an IP adress from your ISP while configuring the internal interfaces, those that connect to your LAN cards, to use static IPs. You will turn off the d-link DHCP server for this. Have a look on their website for your model and it's cinfiguration documentation. www.dlink.com