Public Wildcard Domain Name To Resolve To 127.0.0.1

Question

Is anyone aware of a public wildcard domain name that resolves to IP address 127.0.0.1. For example if I wanted to test a URL locally such as mywebsite.localhost.com or example.localhost.com but I don't have control of DNS settings (hosts file or whatever) then I would use this public DNS to resolve to 127.0.0.1. It needs to be wildcarded so that no matter whatever comes before localhost.com it still resolves to 127.0.0.1.

Solution 1

*.vcap.me

VMWare maintains this for their open cloud platform.

Solution 2

37Signals created a complete domain for mapping to any IP you want, http://xip.io. So for localhost you can using project.127.0.0.1.xip.io

I've had to starting using this for some proxy tools, as they were choking on request that didn't resolved to an IP using an external DNS call.

Solution 3

I've just found a great solution: lvh.me

you can try it:

• http://lvh.me
• http://sub.lvh.me

Solution 4

We've got a domain you can actually remember for this.

*.lacolhost.com

We'll maintain it for as long as we're able.

Developing with subdomains just got a lot easier: *.lacolhost.com

Solution 5

http://localhost.tv does the trick :-)

I bought since none of the existing 85 localhost domains were pointing at localhost...

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Comments

[Admin]

My particular problem is I'm using host headers in IIS. In addition I'm working on portal software which displays different content based on the URL requested.

[orokusaki]

@Earlz :) 127.0.0.1 is not the universal IP address to Rahul's house. That would resolve to local host on the DNS server at afraid.org.

[Earlz]

@oro What he is looking for then is a dynamic IP service. I understood from the question that he wanted just a domain that pointed at 127.0.0.1 which would be the IP of the person that is browsing the domain.

[orokusaki]

Give that a try and see how it works. Look up how DNS works, and you'll understand why it's impossible.

[orokusaki]

I don't see why anyone downvoted this answer. This is the best answer here. What the OP is asking is impossible.

[Arda Xi]

Maybe because he says " I don't have control of DNS settings (hosts file or whatever) "?

[Arda Xi]

Why would it be impossible.. It's just a pointer, it's very well possible to have an A record pointing to 127.0.0.1.

[Brandon Rhodes]

Probably valid at the time this comment was made, but the domain no longer points at localhost.

[Brandon Rhodes]

This fails to answer the question: it creates only one name, www, that points to 127, whereas the questioner needs every possible sub-name to point there. And I have no idea why @orokusaki thinks the question is "impossible" since several people offered ways to accomplish the goal quite easily.

[EvdB]

I let the 127-0-0-1.org.uk domain lapse a while back so this won't work anymore. Sorry. *.vcap.me is a better replacement to use.

[Costa]

-1 because the title of the question includes "wildcard" which this answer will not solve.

[Simon East]

Perfect. This appears to be the only one that supports non-loopback addresses. :-)

[Harikrishna]

xip.io is the perfect domain for this use, 10.0.0.1.xip.io resolves to 10.0.0.1, www.10.0.0.1.xip.io resolves to 10.0.0.1, mysite.10.0.0.1.xip.io resolves to 10.0.0.1, foo.bar.10.0.0.1.xip.io resolves to 10.0.0.1

[geoidesic]

It doesn't seem to support port numbers though?

[Ryan Gibbons]

Port numbers have nothing to do with DNS resolution. DNS resolution happens, then default port based on protocol or the port specified is used.