Scribd
Upload
23 views2 pages

HOSTS File

Uploaded by

Arixson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
23 views2 pages

HOSTS File

Uploaded by

Arixson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

THe HOSTS File

Here's an interesting little fact.

There was a time where the Internet ran without DNS.

Now we're going back 25 years ago that bought the first 10 to 15 years of the
Internet really kicking in.

We didn't use DNS.

Keep in mind there weren't that many computers on the Internet just a few thousand.

So instead of DNS which didn't exist they had something called a hosts file.

H o s t s.

There's no extension there's no dot text doc or anything and it's just a text file.

The host file was nothing more than a listing of a bunch of names and then their
associated IP addresses.

In fact back in the old days they didn't even have fully qualified domain names.

You could pretty much name your computer almost anything you wanted.

It was a mess.

But back in the early days it worked.

Now DNS completely supplanted the host file as a concept.

However the host file still exists.

It's in every computer that runs TCPIP.

Windows Macs Linux they've all got a host file and the cool part is you ready for
this.

The host file will take precedence over DNS.

So let's see how all this works.

Let me show you the host file on my Windows system on a Windows system you can
locate the host file it's under Windows system 32 drivers ETC or what the hip kids
call the ETSI folder and right here is the host file.

Now it's just a text file so we can just open it up with any text file tool.

So I'm just going use Notepad.

OK now first of all do you see these pound signs.

These pound signs mean that it is a commentary and it's not actually being read.

So it's just giving us some examples.

So what we can do here is like for example I've got a friend of mine and his
computer name is this big hairy long name and it's always hard for me to type in if
I want to access shared folders or anything so I can actually just come in and I'll
type in his IP address and then I can just give it any name I want.

So now if I want to get to that particular computer instead of typing in his


horrible computer name that he uses I just created a shortcut so I can just type in
for example here Fred and I can get to that particular machine.

Now I want to show you another little trick you can do it's kind of fun.

I'm going to open up a command prompt real quick and let's I want to ping the most
irritating Web site in the entire universe.

Barney dotcom.

Ok I now have the IP address for www.youtube.com.

You see that right there.

OK now what we're going to do now you don't do this on your computer.

You do it on somebody you want to play a trick on.

So that's the IP address so I can type in 72.

But just like that and just have a few spaces or tabs it doesn't really matter.

And then pick a Web site that they go to a lot see that now the computer's going to
have to be rebooted but once that's put in there any time they open up a web
browser and go to w w w that totals some dot com it's going to take them to this IP
address instead.

So it's a great practical joke.

So that's what a host file is all about.

Even though it's obsolete.

The fact that it takes precedence over your DNS makes it a great place for your own
little personal shortcuts for your computer and also makes for a great practical
joke too.

But you didn't hear it from me.

The hosts file contains IP addresses and their corresponding names

Every computer that runs TCP/IP has a hosts file

The hosts file takes precedence over DNS

You might also like