In some computing systems, an IPv4 process must typically be associated with at least one IP loopback address. In other words, when configuring an IPv4 process on some systems, the IPv4 process must be associated with an IP loopback address during configuration. If the configuration does not associate an IP loopback address with the IPv4 process, then the configuration of the IPv4 process may be terminated and/or flagged as an erroneous configuration.
However, for some uses of the IPv4 process, associating the IPv4 process with an IP loopback address may not be necessary. But because associating the IPv4 process with an IP loopback address is required by some methods for configuring IPv4 processes, the association must be done even when such an association is likely not necessary for a particular use of the IPv4 process. As a result, unnecessary time, and consequently money, may be wasted in an attempt to determine and specify unused IP loopback addresses to associate with the IPv4 process being configured on the computing system for a use that does not require the association of an IP loopback address to the IPv4 process. Accordingly, these means for configuring IP processes on computing systems are less than optimal.