Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Host File - Windows

The hosts file is a computer file used in an operating system to map hostnames to IP addresses. The hosts file is a plain-text file and is traditionally named hosts.

The hosts file is one of several system facilities to assist in addressing network nodes in a computer network. It is a common part in a operating system's Internet Protocol (IP) implementation, and serves the function of translating human-friendly hostnames into numeric protocol addresses, called IP addresses, that identify and locate a host in an IP network.
In some operating systems, the host file content is used preferentially over other methods, such as the Domain Name System (DNS), but many systems implement name service switches (.e.g., nsswitch.conf) to provide customization. Unlike the DNS, the hosts file is under the direct control of the local computer's administrator.

#This is an example of the hosts file
127.0.0.1 localhost loopback
::1 localhost

path of host file is:

Windows 95/98/Me c:\windows\hosts

Windows NT/2000/XP Pro c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Windows XP Home c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

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