If using IIS Express (the default for debugging web applications in Visual Studio), you can use domains other than localhost but its not particularly intuitive.
- First, get the port number your Web application is running on (either copy it from the URL or grab it from the project settings, debug tab).
- Navigate to
%UserProfile%\Documents\IISExpress\config\and openapplicationhost.config(Full path:%UserProfile%\Documents\IISExpress\config\applicationhost.config) - Find the reference to the port number (49483 in my case). It might look something like this:
- Now all that remains to do is add another binding to the section:
You can also set it to accept all hosts on that port by adding the following (note empty string, not wildcard *):
You will have to have set up this host to point to 127.0.0.1 in your hosts file. Or, my favourite method is to use a domain I own and point *.sub.mydomain to 127.0.0.1. Hosts file doesn’t support wildcards (*) but DNS does! This means I can easily set up projecta.sub.mydomain and projectb.sub.mydomain without having to add new lines to my hosts file (so long as I have an internet connection)!
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