Apache Friends Support Forum

Hello, I have a question on XAMPP's outgoing behavior. I am using XAMPP for hosting wordpress locally and use it as theme development environment.

I have noticed that whenever I browse my local wordpress the "local area connection" icon sitting near the clock, indicates data transfer.
I have also noticed that when I am downloading something at maximum speed, pages from localhost used to be loaded very slowly as if it is getting opened from the internet and not from my harddisk.

What actually these mean? Are the pages of localhost going out of my pc to some other direction and then from there getting back to my pc?
If so, then is it normal?
If it is not normal, what can I do to stop that?
Are the localhost pages going to my ISP's server?
Can they know the urls of my local wordpress like http://localhost/wordpress/I-do-not-like-mango ?

Waiting to give thanks to one or more wise men!!!
Please enlighten me.

I'm pretty sure that Windows actually routes the pages through your NIC back to its local loopback address (that's the 127.0.0.1 in the hosts file) SO what happens is when Apache server 'sends' the page to your browser, it acts as if it were delivering to the internet, and a software device (the loopback address) captures that and re-directs it your browser. Localhost is actually an alias for an address in a reserved IP subnet.

OTAY???

Thank you very much JonB.

But how can I stop that? I mean how to configure it in such a way so that it just go to my HDD and bring the pages directly to my browser?

Again, Can my ISP read the urls of my local wordpress like http://localhost/wordpress/I-do-not-like-mango ?

Please put some light on these.

Thank you again.

But how can I stop that? I mean how to configure it in such a way so that it just go to my HDD and bring the pages directly to my browser?

Well you could create a new kind of browser, one that just operates on ONE PC. oh, bad idea, eh?

OK - the answer is - you can't - but it doesn't matter, that traffic can't be routed onto the internet (just like the traffic on your local network) Its designed into the NIC's drivers and the OS. Traffic for 127.0.0.1 is LOOPED BACK onto the local machine (waaay over this discussion) please visualize a LOOP BACK
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5285 ... ip-address

Again, Can my ISP read the urls of my local wordpress like http://localhost/wordpress/I-do-not-like-mango ?

NO - Port 80 forwarding would have to be enabled on your router.

at the risk of being impertinent - I doubt anyone at your ISP cares, have you been talking to that naughty Julian Assange again??. or are you really Hillary Clinton???? WOW!

I do have a simple solution that works 100% (provided you don't have external links in your blog that you need to work with) just unplug the cable or disable the NIC/ wifi in Windows. I'm pretty sure Apache or your browser won't care. But that is silly, isn't it???

You could also read my guide to securing XAMPP.

http://bravo.newnetenterprises.com/word ... -security/

it explains - almost everything -

Good Luck and take a chill pill, Julian is in jail in the UK and likely going nowhere soon



If you want to get paranoid, this is not the place.

Hello again JonB. That answer is as useful as witty! Liked that dam care approach. Pro like you can afford that kind of confidence. But not all, including google. They have launched encrypted version of search to "prevent intermediary parties, such as ISPs, from knowing the exact search that you typed...". They are also paranoid about ISPs!!!

that traffic can't be routed onto the internet

Ok. that cures the "paranoia".


Again dear JonB, thanks for spending time to put light on this issue. Thanks again for a witty and informative reply. Take care.

One last point -

To be fair to ISP's - Google built that to counter the situations where the (repressive) 'government' is your ISP (read China and Iran + many others -- but those two are at the head of the list) or Google 'the Great Chinese Firewall'

SO all you have to fear is the Barbarians at the gates.