Using Separate Host or Domain Names for Website Development on Windows with IIS or Apache Using Hosts File
Whether you run IIS or Apache you can run local sites similar to 'localhost'. When you type localhost in your browser's address bar and hit enter, the address always translates to the loopback IP address 127.0.0.1 in IPv4, or ::1 in IPv6. You can easily create similar names which will always translate to loopback IP address 127.0.0.1 or point to any specific IP address of your choice.