17.5. Accessing Web Servers

To request documents from web servers, users must know the hostnames on which the web server software resides. Users can request documents from local web servers (i.e., ones residing on users’ machines) or remote web servers (i.e., ones residing on different machines).

Local web servers can be accessed through your computer’s name or through the name localhost—a hostname that references the local machine and normally translates to the IP address 127.0.0.1 (known as the loopback address). We sometimes use localhost in this book for demonstration purposes. To display the machine name in Windows, Mac OS X or Linux, run the hostname command in a command prompt or terminal window.

A remote web server referenced by a fully qualified hostname or an IP address can also serve documents. In the URL http://www.deitel.com/books/downloads.html, the middle portion, www.deitel.com, is the server’s fully qualified hostname.