The `loopback' interface is a special type of interface that allows you
to make connections to yourself. There are various reasons why you might want
to do this, for example, you may wish to test some network software without
interfering with anybody else on your network. By convention the IP address
`127.0.0.1' has been assigned specifically for loopback. So no matter
what machine you go to, if you open a telnet connection to 127.0.0.1
you will always reach the local host.
Configuring the loopback interface is simple and you should ensure you do
(but note that this task is usually performed by the standard initialization
scripts).
root# ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1
root# route add -host 127.0.0.1 lo
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We'll talk more about the route command in the next section.
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