One localhost on two PCs

Question

Today I got an idea, that testing my web apps on two different PCs would be even better if they both are near and if I could use my own localhost instead of hosting.

i.e.:
1. My ASUS laptop runs Windows 7 and XAMPP for work with localhost.
2. My desktop PC runs Windows XP.
3. They both are connected trough router.
4. There some shared folders on both.

Now what I wanted to do is to lunch XAMPP on my laptop and try to view same from my desktop through http://localhost/, but only when XAMPP on my desktop isn't launched.

Is it possible? Or if not, then maybe there are some suggestions?

Answer 1

This sounds like an odd/mental idea - just put two entries in each machine's hosts file if you don't have common DNS - then refer to each by name - it'll be far easier. And no localhost only ever points to yourself unless you specifically define it otherwise at which point you're inviting a world of pain on yourself now or later - don't do that ok.

Answer 2

Just to give you another way to do this;

ProxyPass /othermachine http:// otherhost/ on the XAMP apache config and there you go. If you were really neat, setup a virtual host with ProxyPass / http:// otherhost/