[networking] What does localhost:8080 mean?

What is the difference between localhost/web vs. localhost:8080/web?

http://localhost:8080/web: localhost ( hostname ) is the machine name or IP address of the host server e.g Glassfish, Tomcat. 8080 ( port ) is the address of the port on which the host server is listening for requests.

http://localhost/web: localhost ( hostname ) is the machine name or IP address of the host server e.g Glassfish, Tomcat. host server listening to default port 80.

Option 1

localhost/web is equal to localhost:80/web OR to 127.0.0.1:80/web

Option 2

localhost:8080/web is equal to localhost:8080/web OR to 127.0.0.1:8080/web

the localhost:8080 means your explicitly targeting port 8080.

http uses port 80, and understandably, your internet browser will automatically use that port when you type in an address - unless you specify another port. Now, when running a web server on your computer, you need to access that server somehow - and since port 80 is already busy, you need to use a different port to successfully connect to it. Although any open port is fair game, usually such a server is configured to use port 8080, hence when accessing your server you type in:

http:// (protocol) localhost (your computer) :8080 (port 8080) / (path pointing to the root of the public folder of your server)

http: //localhost:8080/web

Where

• localhost ( hostname ) is the machine name or IP address of the host server e.g Glassfish, Tomcat.
• 8080 ( port ) is the address of the port on which the host server is listening for requests.

http ://localhost/web

Where

• localhost ( hostname ) is the machine name or IP address of the host server e.g Glassfish, Tomcat.
• host server listening to default port 80.