xip.io: wildcard DNS for everyone
xip.io is a magic domain name that provides wildcard DNS for any IP address. Say your LAN IP address is 10.0.0.1. Using xip.io, 10.0.0.1.xip.io resolves to 10.0.0.1 www.10.0.0.1.xip.io resolves to 10.0.0.1 mysite.10.0.0.1.xip.io resolves to 10.0.0.1 foo.bar.10.0.0.1.xip.io resolves to 10.0.0.1 ...and so on. You can use these domains to access virtual hosts on your development web server from devices on your local network, like iPads, iPhones, and other computers. No configuration required!
How does it work? xip.io runs a custom DNS server on the public Internet. When your computer looks up a xip.io domain, the xip.io DNS server extracts the IP address from the domain and sends it back in the response.
Does xip.io cost anything? Nope! xip.io is a free service from 37signals, the creators of Pow. We were tired of jumping through hoops to test our apps on other devices and decided to solve the problem once and for all.