# How to Connect to the Localhost of the Machine from inside of a Docker Container?

If you are running some kind of a server or any other service (such as a database) on localhost and the service isn’t exposing any port, you may have found yourself wondering how to connect to this service within the docker container. Here is how to do it.

## Docker for Windows and Mac

If you are running Docker for Windows or Docker for Mac  (version 18.03 or newer), you can use the `host.docker.internal` address instead of `127.0.0.1`  in your connection strings.

## Docker for Linux

If you are using Docker for Linux (version 20.10.0 or newer), you can also use the `host.docker.internal` address, if you started docker with the `-add-host host.docker.internal:host-gateway` option. See the example below:

```bash
docker run -d --add-host host.docker.internal:host-gateway <container>:latest
```

Another option (which works only on Linux) is to add `-network="host”` option in your `docker run` command. This will ensure that localhost will be pointing to your docker host.

```bash
docker run -d --network=host <container>:latest
```