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On Wednesday 06 August 2003 11:45, Scott Mcdermott wrote:
> Gene Heskett on Tue  5/08 20:02 -0400:
> > > I've heard this before. What exactly is the problem with
> > > localhost?  Could you elaborate?
> >
> > Primarily its a security issue because *any* machine can
> > be localhost.  By using the FQDN, there is then no
> > ambiguity as to which machine is being addressed.  Its
> > simply good practice.
> >
> > amrecover and amrestore IIRC are trained to reject
> > localhost because the files are portable, and trying to
> > restore to localhost might even try to restore a wintel
> > boxes code to a box with a moto cpu in it.  Thats a bit
> > far fetched, but that is one scenario that won't, for
> > obvious reasons, work.
>
> 
[..snip..]
>
> but localhost is a valid, relative hostname.  If I put
> "localhost" in a DLE, then localhost is a known, unchanging
> machine, relative to the machine that is using the name
> "localhost"

  Too many times, I have seen network-aware software mis-behave when
  "localhost" is specified even though localhost was properly defined in
  the hosts file.  One example that has burned me a couple of times is
  attempting to use Netscape to reach localhost.  I have seen Netscape load
  pages off the net when given the url: http://localhost/.  Shouldn't 
  happen, but that does not prevent it from happening.


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