localhost directs to www.domains.tld after adding .htaccess in codeigniter folder - codeigniter

Question

I just started using Codeigniter to develop a simple static website using a local server (MAMP). Initially my local address to access my homepage was http://localhost/index.php/home. Even a simple localhost would redirect to my homepage. I wanted to remove the 'index.php' from the URL and hence I copy pasted the .htaccess code which I found online. The code looked like the following:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
### Canonicalize codeigniter URLs
# If your default controller is something other than
# "welcome" you should probably change this
RewriteRule ^(welcome(/index)?|index(\.php)?)/?$ / [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)/index/?$ $1 [L,R=301]
# Removes trailing slashes (prevents SEO duplicate content issues)
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.+)/$ $1 [L,R=301]
# Enforce www
# If you have subdomains, you can add them to
# the list using the "|" (OR) regex operator
#RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^(www|subdomain) [NC]
#RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.tld/$1 [L,R=301]
# Enforce NO www
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://localhost/$1 [L,R=301]
###
# Removes access to the system folder by users.
# Additionally this will allow you to create a System.php controller,
# previously this would not have been possible.
# 'system' can be replaced if you have renamed your system folder.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^system.*
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]
# Checks to see if the user is attempting to access a valid file,
# such as an image or css document, if this isn't true it sends the
# request to index.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]
</IfModule>
<IfModule !mod_rewrite.c>
# Without mod_rewrite, route 404's to the front controller
ErrorDocument 404 /index.php
</IfModule>
Initially I copy-pasted the code without changing it at all (which was foolish on my part) So the 'localhost' in the code above was initially 'www.domains.tld'. When I then ran localhost on my browser, it directed to www.domains.tld'. I noticed the blunder and changed it to what it is above and localhost still directs to 'www.domains.tld' I deleted the .htaccess file to reverse the effect but it still does the same thing.
I also changed my root folder for localhost but whatever I do localhost points to 'domains.tld'. When I type 127.0.0.1 on the address bar of my browser, it directs correctly to my website. I have spent hours reading up on the reason for this behavior but am unsuccessful to find a solution.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
H.

Answer 1

Clear your DNS cache and restart your browser. Certain browsers cache redirects with DNS so that you end up at what it thinks is the correct site more quickly.
Firefox is particularly annoying with this, so I disable its internal DNS caching every time I install. In about:config, create the following two integer type settings (NOTE: you MUST create these, they do not exist by default):
network.dnsCacheEntries set to 0
network.dnsCacheExpiration set to 0
In Chrome, you would need to turn off DNS prefetching under your Privacy settings.
The reason they do this is to make the internet "seem" faster to casual browsers. For developers, it can be quite a hindrance.