What is the purpose of the Microsoft Loopback Adapter?

Question

Just as the question says, what is the Microsoft Loopback Adapter, and as a bonus, what scenerios as a developer would it be useful? I\'ve noticed it\'s been required when i

Answer 1

When sending messages to 127.0.0.1 (or the localhost) the internal network driver typically handles this by shortcutting a few steps.

If you have a networksniffer/protocol analyzer like wireshark, it can not see these shortcutted packets.

By using a loopback adapter, the messages get send much further through the stack, enabling programs like wireshark to capture the packets (and enabling you to analyze the packets)