Hosts - How does it work?

The hosts file is quite amazing, as well as being very simple to use.

As you may be aware, when you connect to the Internet, your computer is assigned a unique Internet address. This comes in the form of four sets of numbers, divided by decimals.

In Australia, when you connect to the Internet, your unique address (I.P. address) may look something like 203.213.51.222.

This address you are assigned is pretty important.

When you access a website, the website needs to know who to send the information to. Having a unique I.P. address, allows the website you are visiting to send you the data you are requesting.

Websites also have a unique I.P. address.

When you type in the name of a website, i.e. www.uraniannights.com, your computer needs to know the I.P. address to load up the home page. The website name alone is not enough to get you to uraniannights.com -

Your computer needs to know the I.P. address of UranianNights.com to be able to connect to the website.

So when you type in www.uraniannights.com your computer goes out to a Domain Name Server to tell your computer the I.P. address of the website you are trying to connect to.

The Domain Name Server resolves the website name you entered into an I.P. address.

This all goes on in the background.

So how does this hosts file work?

Well, when you type in a domain name like www.uraniannights.com - instead of checking a DNS server first, your computer checks the hosts file first.

In this hosts file, you can make it easier on Windows, by entering the I.P. address of uraniannights.com.

It goes in the format of:
I.P. address (three spaces) Domain name.
203.30.164.96 [imagine three spaces] www.uraniannights.com

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