Wamp Apache - Allow localhost - apache

Question

There are other questions similar to this but don't answer my problem.
This is the default httpd.conf:
<Directory "C:/wamp/www/">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride all
# onlineoffline tag - don't remove
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from 127.0.0.1
</Directory>
and it allows only 127.0.0.1, but I want to allow also localhost and 192.168.x.x (my private ip).
Well, the other answers are: put Allow from all and uncomment in hosts file the line 127.0.0.1 localhost; but I read that is unsecure or not reccomended.
So I've tried this:
<Directory "C:/wamp/www/">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride all
# onlineoffline tag - don't remove
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from 127.0.0.1
Allow from 192.168.x.x
Allow from localhost
</Directory>
It works for 192.168.x.x, but not for localhost (gets error: 403 Forbidden, You don't have permission to access / on this server.)
1) How can make it works?
2) Maybe is required to uncomment in hosts file the line 127.0.0.1 localhost ?
3) Is it really more secure than Allow from all?

Answer 1

Lets keep it simple, try this
<Directory "C:/wamp/www/">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride all
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from 127.0.0.1 ::1 localhost 192.168
</Directory>
::1 is the IPV6 equivalent of 127.0.0.1
I would use the first 3 of the quartiles 192.168.0 ( assuming your third quartile is 0 )

Answer 2

Update your httpd.conf to this, and you will be able to get to localhost on WAMP.
<Directory "C:/wamp/www/">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride all
# onlineoffline tag - don't remove
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from 127.0.0.1
Allow from 192.168.x.x
Allow from ::1
</Directory>

Answer 3

If you are using
Apache 2.4
then use:
<Directory "C:/wamp/www/">
Require all denied
Require ip 127.0.0.1
<If "%{HTTP_HOST} == 'localhost'">
Require all granted
</If>
</Directory>

Answer 4

1) I don't know if your Directory sintax is correct as I use ubuntu server, but I always put the lines that allow individual addresses before the "Deny from all" directive. However, in the apache documentation you can see examples where the directives are in the same order as in your code
Link
I alse specify the netmask, which in the case of individual IPs should be 255.255.255.255, more fine-grained subnet restriction.
I have always seen the words deny,allow in the first directive in lowercase, but as you are using Windows maybe it is not necessary. The code that I would use is:
order deny,allow
Allow from 127.0.0.1/255.255.255.255
Allow from 192.168.x.x/255.255.255.255
Allow from localhost/255.255.255.255
Deny from all
2) Yes, as you are denying every petition except those that come from the specified IPs
Related reference