Significance of Host File in Windows

What is host file?

Almost every operating system that communicates via TCP/IP, the standard of communication on the Internet, has a file called the HOSTS file. This file allows you to create mappings between domain names and IP addresses.

You can command your machine to contact the only a particular machine for replies.

How to set your local machine to contact only a particular machine for the replies with the host file on Windows?

1.Click on Win+R or Start -> run and type drivers as below:



2. Goto the “etc” directory and open the hosts file



3. Add the entries in the following format and save it

{IP}         {Domain Name}

Example:

127.0.0.1              localhost

10.90.112.101     domainname



Note:

You must have the administrative rights to modify/add the entries in hosts file.

4. After saved the above host entries, whenever you gave the request the particular domain configured in the hosts file then response will come directly from the ip which we configured(example: 10.90.112.101)

5. If you need to host entries, just delete the line which you added or insert “#” in front of the line as below

#10.90.112.101  domainname