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What are loopback addresses and why are they a good troubleshooting tool?

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Question added by Micheal Egereugwu , IT TECHNICAL SUPPORT ENGINEER , AFRI-HUB ICT CENTER
Date Posted: 2018/02/02
Micheal Egereugwu
by Micheal Egereugwu , IT TECHNICAL SUPPORT ENGINEER , AFRI-HUB ICT CENTER

loopback addresses are special addresses, resserved IPV4 addresses 127.0.0.1, which hosts uses to direct traffic to themselves. loopback addresses creates a shortcut method for TCP/IP applications/ services that run on same device to communicate.

loopback addresses are good troubleshooting tool because the inability to ping the loopback address suggest an improperly configured or installed TCP/IP stack

mohamed wazeem
by mohamed wazeem , Training Officer , Vocational Training Aurhority of Sri lanka

he loopback device is a special, virtual network interface that your computer uses to communicate with itself. It is used mainly for diagnostics and troubleshooting, and to connect to servers running on the local machine.

Loopback address use the range.0.0.1 -... and with  ipv.0.0.1/8 is the most common used as it maps the hostname of the local host device to that ip.

Loopback addresses are virtual addreses, once they are made active they always should remain active. Unlike a physical interface which will go to down state if the cable is disconnected. Therefore, for troubleshooting purposes they are a good starting point to ping or trace when troublshooting network connectivity.

For example, on a windows pc the address.0.0.1 is designed for the software loopback interface of the pc and when doing a ping to this address from command line it should always return a ping reply. By getting a reply when pinging.0.0.1 this proves the tcp/ip stack on the pc is fully functioning.

Also some routing protocols such as ospf use loopback addresses to advertise and propogate routing information to all devices in the routing domain when sending routing updates.

 

 

Tinu Thomas
by Tinu Thomas , ASSOCIATE CUSTOMER ENGINEER , HCL INFOSYSYEM LTD

Loop back address is 127.0.0.1.Loop back are a good troubleshooting tool because inability to ping the loop back address.

Sauid Fraz
by Sauid Fraz , APP-MNT-ELT , Fauji Fertilizer Company Limited

Loopback address is a special IP number (127.0.0.1) that is designated for the software loopback interface of a machine. The loopback interface has no hardware associated with it, and it is not physically connected to a network.

The loopback interface allows IT professionals to test IP software without worrying about broken or corrupted drivers or hardware.

Santiago Garcia
by Santiago Garcia , Managing Consultant , Sunjin Myanmar Co., Ltd.

A loopback is a Virtual Interface and doesn't have any dependency on the physical interface and makes it always reachable to localhost/same machine which makes loopback addresses a good troubleshooting tool. 

Muhammad Shafiquzzman
by Muhammad Shafiquzzman , Manager,IT , Saiham Knit Composite Ltd

loopback 127.0.0.1 is test for self test that is TCP/IP protocol is successfully install on windows. its a system generated reserved IP.

MS AHSAN
by MS AHSAN , Accociate producer , Weehours News

Loopback Address:- A loopback address is a type of IP address that is used to test the communication or transportation medium on a local network card and/or for testing network applications. Data packets sent on a loopback address are re-routed back to the orginating node without any alteration or modification.

Troubleshooting Tool:- When testing network/IP based applications, it is implemented on a virtual network interface card, which acts an addition to the physical network card. IPv4, 127.0.0.1 is the most commonly used loopback address, however, this can range be extended to 127.255.255.255.

Bharat Verma
by Bharat Verma , Network Administrator , Caresoft Inc

loopback address is 127.0.0.1 that is reservede for check self network testing.

loopback address is primarily used as a means to validate that the locally connected physical network card is working properly and the TCP/IP stack installed. Typically, a data packet sent on aloopback address, never leaves the host system and is sent back to the source application

MOHAMMAD KHADEER
by MOHAMMAD KHADEER , IT Coordinator , Golden Group of Companies

the loopback interface is using for identityfy the device

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