What the heck is http://localhost:631
 

I have seen this http://localhost:631 referred to in some posts regarding my printing problem. I assume that is not a site on the net, but something in my computer.

When I try to connect to it, nothing happens.....just keeps trying to connect.

P.S. by the way my original printing problem is here http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=97691


Thanks

I believe the cups server runs on port 631.

OK.......what does that mean? and why does it hang when I try to connect. Is there one of those files ex (etc/dev/mnt/blah blah) that will help determine why I cannot print?

It means that cups is not running. Yes there are config files. I'm no expert on cups. Have a go at the documentation.

If it was working before try starting it up again.:
service cups start

http://www.cups.org/documentation.php

http://www.mandrakeuser.org/docs/hardware/hcups4.html

What settings should my localhost be set to. Im a bit confused about DNS and localhost. Currently my settings are in DNS tab hostname is localhost.localdomain my primary DNS is set to IP and DNS search path is localdomain. Under Host tab I have nothing listed.

What should I have? or is there no good answer for this?

localhost refers to internel loopback TCP/IP device. localhost mapes to the IP address 127.0.0.1. All TCP/IP configured PC's will have a localhost.