Title: why does 'localhost' work on a server?
Last modified: August 21, 2016

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# why does 'localhost' work on a server?

 *  [flight1307](https://wordpress.org/support/users/flight1307/)
 * (@flight1307)
 * [12 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/why-does-localhost-work-on-a-server/)
 * Hello All
 * Long story short – I put my wordpress site live to my server yesterday, with 
   some assistance from my host’s helpdesk. It’s all working. But I’ve noticed today
   that my host’s guy used:
 *     ```
       /** MySQL hostname */
       define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');
       ```
   
 * in ‘wp-config.php’ using ‘localhost’ instead of ‘[http://www.my-live-site.com&#8217](http://www.my-live-site.com&#8217);.
   And it works. Is this normal? Is ‘localhost’ acceptable there when it’s a live
   server and not local?
 * Thank you.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

 *  [Robin W](https://wordpress.org/support/users/robin-w/)
 * (@robin-w)
 * [12 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/why-does-localhost-work-on-a-server/#post-4244299)
 * ‘localhost’ just means it’s on the same server as the wp installation
 * So when installed on your PC, it means that the DB is on your PC
    When on a server
   it means the DB is also on that server
 * Some hosting companies have their databases on separate servers optimised for
   DB transactions so you could well have a different server name there, but it 
   won’t be a www.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

The topic ‘why does 'localhost' work on a server?’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 1 reply
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Robin W](https://wordpress.org/support/users/robin-w/)
 * Last activity: [12 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/why-does-localhost-work-on-a-server/#post-4244299)
 * Status: not resolved

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