Out of Interest: Protocols / Local Host

[David_Jones]

Hi,

This is just out of interest, inspired by another post here.

Why dos it not work if I put this in my IE address bar:

localhost/default.htm (or 127.0.0.1/default.htm)


I created a file called default.htm in my c:\ root folder (actually saved a page from PC Mech without all the graphics etc).

I was expecting it to display in IE when I put in the above 'address'.

I also tried:

http://localhost
http://localhost/default.htm
file://localhost
file://localhost/default.htm

None of those worked either.

You probably realised that I know little or nothing about this stuff, but they seemed like a logical experiment to play around with!

Thanks for humouring me.

David.

[glc]

You have to have a webserver (IIS, PWS, whatever) running on your machine for it to work that way, and the file has to be in the server's directory structure.

[David_Jones]

So would I be correct in thinking that my browser can 'talk' HTTP, but my PC (serving up the file on my HDD) cannot?

If so, why doesn't the file://127.0.0.1 work either, since I thought I was stipulating that IE not use the HTTP?

Feel free to tell me to go away and find a tutorial somewhere!

[Statica]

Basically what a webserver also does is, open up a port on your computer, that allows for a browser to access your files. This is typically port 80 (when you type www.pcmech.com you are actually going to a computer that has port 80 open and its www.pcmech.com:80 ).

When typing an address without a webserver you are missing 2 components - one is an identifier for the IP address and the other is the appropriate port.

You can try this small & free webserver to see how it would work: http://www.analogx.com/contents/down...work/sswww.htm

[Great_One]

Originally posted by David_Jones If so, why doesn't the file://127.0.0.1 work either, !

because you are specifying it to look for a file called
127.0.0.1 which is really the the local host ip address

try file://c:\

and see what you get

[David_Jones]

Great!

Thanks guys - as ever, I now have a slightly greater appreciation of just how much I do not know, but that's the kind of inspiration you can't beat!

David.