It can be used to override results provided by DNS servers and provide hostname lookup on a local area network (LAN) in the absence of a DNS server. Remove an entry from the hosts file using the command lineīut the hosts file remains part of most operating systems.Edit the hosts file using the command line.Edit the hosts file using the GUI and Notepad.And that is how the Internet works to this day. The Domain Name System (DNS) was created in 1984 to provide devices connected to the Internet with a way to look up hostnames by querying a set of distributed servers. As you can see, it would be difficult to remember the IP address of every device connected to the Internet! So, the hosts file contained a phonebook-like directory of IP addresses mapped to computer hostnames.Īs the Internet developed and more devices were connected in different geographical locations, it was no longer practical to maintain a single hosts file. An IP address might look something like this: 172.217.23.238. All devices connected to the Internet are represented by an IP address. In the early days of the Internet, there was just one ‘hosts’ file that was used to match computer names to IP addresses. There are several easy ways that you can edit the file, and in this article, I will take you through each method step-by-step. In this article, you will learn how to edit the Windows 11 hosts file.

Dvdfab 11 host file error