An explanation of the loopback IP address/localhost

The IP address 127.0.0.1 is a special-purpose IPv4 address and is called the localhost or loopback address. All computers use this address as their own, but it doesn’t let computers communicate with other devices as a real IP address does.

Your computer might have the 192.168.1.115 private IP address assigned to it so that it can communicate with a router and other networked devices. However, it still attaches the special 127.0.0.1 address as something like an alias to mean, in networking terms, this computer.

The loopback address is only used by the computer you’re on, and only for special circumstances—unlike a regular IP address that transfers files to and from other networked devices. For example, a web server running on a computer can point to 127.0.0.1 so that the pages run locally and test before it’s deployed.