The class system in IPv4 was abandoned in 1993 when CIDR(Classless Inter-Domain Routing) was introduced. But even today, some of those old class-based address ranges are still reserved and serve specific purposes.
might’ve noticed that in the traditional traditional class range, the 127.0.0.x block seems to be missing,here’s why:
That’s not a mistake , the entire block 127.0.0.0/8 is reserved for loopback addresses.
A loopback address is basically a way for a machine to send data to itself. The packets don’t actually go out onto the network, they get processed internally by the system’s own network stack.
That’s why it’s called a “loopback”, the data is literally looped back to the sender.
The most commonly used loopback address is 127.0.0.1 also known by its hostname, localhost. You’ve definitely used it while running a local server or testing network applications. It’s a super useful tool for development and diagnostics.