What is hosts file location on windows 10 and how to edit hosts file?
What is Hosts file?
A hosts file is a local file on a computer which contain all
the hosts and their IP address. Basically hosts file map the domain name or hosts
names into IP addresses.
When the Internet (WWW) did not exist as such, but there
were already small local networks from computers connected to each other, even
then they came to the conclusion that it is much easier to access hosts
(computers on the network) by name, rather than by a digital code called an IP address. Therefore, a list of correspondence of the
hosts name and its IP address was manually generated. Such list was called Hosts
and sent to all nodes on the local network. Everything was wonderful right up
to the moment when it was no longer possible to use such a method due to the
huge number of records contained in this file. Sending it has become
problematic.
Purpose and Uses of Hosts File
Hosts file is available on all operating system from linux
to windows. Another distinctive feature of it is that it does not have an
extension, but this is due to the fact that it works it must be in any OS, and
therefore must be universal. Although it is a relic of the past, there
are still plenty of ways to use the Hosts both for good and not very good
purposes. For example, viruses and virus writers love it very much and often
use either phishing duplicates of official sites or to block the ability to
update your antivirus program.
In past when we don’t have a fast internet connection, many
users registered the resources they visited most often in Hosts files. And also
blocked the servers through it with advertising, well, or access to the
programs that they activated, let’s say, without paying developers.
But even now, this file can be beneficial, including for webmasters.
For example, when changing the hostsing, you sometimes have to wait a day,
before the new IP address of your site is registered through all DNS servers.
However, you can begin to work and test the site on a new hostsing immediately
after its placement there in hosts file.
In addition to this, it will generally be useful to know
where the Hosts file is located, how to find it on different operating systems,
how to check it for virgin purity from virus entries, and, finally, how it
should look in the original.
Syntax of hosts file:
By default there is only single entry in hosts file:
#127.0.0.1 localhosts
#::1 localhosts
The syntax of the hosts file is very simple. Every entry is
starting with ‘#’ symbol followed by the the IP address, and then the name of
the hosts (computer, hosts or domain) is written. A separate line is used for
each record of this kind.
Locations of the hosts file on windows 10
This raises the main question, and what is the current
position of Hosts in the process of establishing the correspondence between the
domain names entered in the browser and those IP addresses that are hidden
behind these domains? Well, as it turned out, it occupies a very important
place, namely the first.
In older versions of Windows, such as XP or 2000, it was
open to all comers and lived in system folders at the following address:
Windows\System32\drivers\etc\
You won’t believe it, but he lives at the same address both
in Windows 7 and windows 10, but everything is somewhat more complicated there,
for having passed along the path:
c:\Windows\System32\drivers\
Folders etc you will not find there. The developers decided
that ordinary mortals should not touch this file to avoid problems.
However, the hosts file in windows 7 and vista still has a
place to be, you just need to look for it, having received Administrator
rights. Personally, I never even tried to figure out all this nonsense with
rights, but for myself I found a very simple way to get around this
restriction.
How to edit a hosts file?
Open the hosts file directory from his path and then right
click on hosts file and open it with the notepad.
Well, actually, half the job is done. Now in notebook,
select “File” - “Open” from the top menu. In the standard window of Windows
Explorer, find the desired folder etc (inside the Windows \ System32 \ drivers
\ directory), select in the bottom right corner from the "All files"
drop-down list and with happy eyes observe the appearance of this top-secret
file:
How to remove virus entries from hosts file?
Hosts file will be without expansion, and the rest of the
crap, like hosts.txt, is very often created by viruses to distract your
attention and confuse you in the end. For the real file, they set the “Hidden”
attribute, which can be set or removed by simply right-clicking on the file and
choosing the lowest “Properties” item:
We still found where this secret (for Windows 7 and vista)
file is located, and we should carefully examine it for possible abuse. If the
initial examination of the patient did not reveal any pathologies, then look at
the scroll area of the page in Notepad .
Sometimes the virus makes its entries after several hundred
blank lines, thereby reducing the risk of them being detected by you. If there
is no scroll bar, then everything is fine, but if there is, then use it and
bring your Hosts to the form that it should have from birth, i.e. it will be
sufficient to have only two lines in it
127.0.0.1 localhosts
::1 localhosts
Well, if the substitution of addresses in this
file is pretty simple, for example, it might look like this:
|
127.0.0.1 localhosts
::1 localhosts
77.88.21.3 w7cloud.com
|
So how, then, is blocking certain sites through hosts? Well,
just the domain you want to block is assigned a private IP address of
127.0.0.1, for example, like this:
|
127.0.0.1 localhosts
::1 localhosts
127.0.0.1 vk.com
127.0.0.1 w7cloud.com
|
The clever browser finds this correspondence and tries to
get the necessary document (web page) from your own computer, which, naturally,
does not succeed and about which he will immediately inform you. By the
way, this is a good way to block your children access to sites that you think
they should not visit. Of course, it will still be necessary to create a
list of such sites or take them somewhere, but if you wish, you can completely
try.
As I mentioned, in ancient times, when the Internet was
still slow for most users, they were prescribed IPs in Hosts to speed up the
opening of sites. Another thing is that these same resources periodically
changed the hostsing and with it the IP addresses. And the user, having
forgotten about what he did six months ago to speed up the Internet, is trying
in vain to understand why his favorite resources are not available to him.
How to use hosts when transferring a site to a new hostsing?
Well, in the end, I would like to talk about how, by making
changes to the file, the Hosts can work with a site that has moved to a new hostsing
before a new record is written on all DNS servers (matching your domain with a
new IP address ) The method is very simple, but effective.
So, you are changing the hosts. Naturally, the IP address of
your site is changing. How do they find out on the Internet? Everything is
correct, using the network of DNS servers. By the way, you will take the first
and most important step yourself by going to the control panel of your registrar
and writing down the addresses of the NS servers of your new hostser there.
It is from them that the new DNS will spread throughout the
Internet. But this process is lengthy and in the worst case scenario it can
take a couple of days. At this time, the site should be available on both the
new and the old hosting, so that users from all over the world would not be
deprived of the opportunity to see it.
However, you yourself will be interested to find out, but
how, in fact, your resource feels at the new hostser? Check the operation of
all plugins and other things. Do you really have to wait from a few hours to
two days? After all, it is unbearable.
Firstly, it will be possible to try to reset the DNS cache
on your computer itself, because it may prevent you from seeing your resource
on a new hostsing if external DNS servers have already received a new record.
How to do it? Again, everything is very simple. Press the key combination Win +
R on the keyboard (or select the "Run" item from the
"Start" menu), and then enter in the window that opens:
A very scary window will open under the name of the command
line, where you will need to insert this command:
ipconfig /flushdns
Regular paste buttons in the command window do not work, so
just right-click on it and select "Paste."
After that, click on "Enter", the DNS cache will
be cleared on your computer and you can try to open your site again. By the
way, DNS cache may also be present in the browser itself, so clear it or
refresh the window by holding down the Shift button on the keyboard.
By the way, if interested, you can view the contents of the
DNS cache by entering the following command at the command prompt:
ipconfig /displaydns
Still opening a site on an old hosting? No problem. We find
the Hosts file described in the way described above and adds only one line to
it:
109.120.169.66 w7cloud.com
Where 109.120.169.66 - this will be the IP address of your
new hosting , and then the domain name of your site will follow. Everything.
While the rest of the world admires your resource on the old hosting, you have
the opportunity to fix possible jambs on the engine already transferred to the
new hosting. The thing is wonderful and I always use it.
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