instead of 127.0.0.1

Zpixel

can we assign a different address to our local apachi webserver, instead of usual 127.0.0.1 address.

is it possible & how?

Installer

If you're on a local network, you should be able to use the network address as well. Check the "Listen" value in httpd.conf.

If you want to use a named server, find the file named "hosts" (probably /etc/hosts on linux, c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts on Windows) and edit it. For instance you can add a line like:

192.168.0.10 example.com
or
192.168.0.10 myserver
or
127.0.0.1 myserver

Google for "hosts file tutorial" to find out more.

Zpixel

thanks. based of what you said i can write myserver.com in my home pc IE address bar and see my local site. how can i then assign an appropriate folder to that address?
i edited httpd.conf like this : Listen 127.0.0.9:80 , but nothing happend when i used the address. normally i see the root directory when i use loop address.

also, sometimes we want to use a fake address,for example to test our online payment scripts. it needs to be tested from a registerd server ip address. is it possible to change our home pc apachi configuration to use a real ip address when communicating with outside machines.

Installer

I didn't mean you necessarily needed to change the Apache listen directive, just check to see if it was already bound to an address. Normally (on a local server) you can just leave it bound to port 80, and not any particular address. The documentation for listen is here.

I'm not clear what you mean with that other stuff you asked about. You mean you want to let outside IPs access your server for testing? If so, you would need to setup your lan router to filter and port forward any inbound requests, and check that your isp allows inbound port 80 requests. If they don't, you'd need to setup a different port and requests would need to go to that port.

Zpixel

i mean those of hacking tasks to use a fake ip address in our requests.
i use dialup modem through an isp. it is impossible i think to use fake addresses in such situation, whether to change apachi settings or to use special softwares?

some websites check client ip address to let them use their services.