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In computing the term localhost refers to the location of the currently used system. It is a loopback device which is assigned the IP address 127.0.0.1 in IPv4, or ::1 in IPv6, which can be used by TCP/IP applications to talk to themselves if this is needed.
Being able to communicate with one's local machine as though it were a remote machine is useful for the purposes of testing, and also to contact services (such as game servers) located on one's own machine that are expected to be remote.
Humor
- There is a common computer nerd joke, "There's no place like 127.0.0.1"
- "127.0.0.1? Nice FTP site, but I already have that stuff."
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