Firefox redirects my local virtual server website url to an external url
I am a web developer who makes websites on my local work station. I use XAMPP (Apache & PHP) on Windows. I edit my Windows hosts file to include server aliases like:
127.0.0.12 pierremarketinggroup
...and then I add a virtual server to the Apache httpd.conf file, so that when I type:
http://pierremarketinggroup/
...in my address bar, it will take me to the local website on my workstation hard drive.
This has been working for years on Firefox, but now, after upgrading to PHP 8 in XAMPP and some fiddling around, Firefox no longer respects the local domain, but instead will redirect me to
https://www.pierremarketinggroup.com
...which doesn't exist, yet.
Firefox does the same thing with all my local, virtual domains. Chrome, Edge, and other web browsers continue to work normally, so I know my Apache and Windows hosts settings are correct.
What I have tried: - Cleared content cache, restarted Firefox. Didn't fix the problem. - "Refresh" Firefox. I think this was a mistake, as I lost all my logins, but too late now. Even so, it didn't fix the problem. I type the local address into address bar, and Firefox doesn't read it, or doesn't look up the local domain, or I don't know what.
I used to be able to fix the problem by going to Privacy & Security -> Cookies and Site Data -> Clear Data -> check Cached Web Content -> Clear, and that would usually fix the problem. Now it doesn't fix the problem.
How do I force Firefox to look up the domain on my local machine, instead of redirecting me to an external (and usually unrelated) url?