#websiteredirect

The hosts file is an interesting and useful feature of both Windows and Linux operating systems that provides many handy options in addressing network nodes. For instance, you can use the hosts file to block annoying ads, pop-ups, banners, porn sites, or even redirect one website to another. In this post I will show you how to play around with the hosts file to accomplish some of the above mentioned jobs. What is a hosts File? The hosts file is just like any other computer file that is used by the operating system to map hostnames and domain names on to their corresponding IP addresses. In other words, when you type “google.com” on your browser’s address bar, your computer will look for the hosts file to see if it contains the corresponding IP address for the domain name you typed (google.com). In case if no entry is present in the hosts file, the request is then passed on to the DNS (Domain Name System) server to obtain the IP address. hosts File vs. DNS When it comes to resolving the hostnames, the hosts file is given the first priority over the Domain Name System. In most cases, the hosts file remains unconfigured on the operating system and hence the DNS is used by the computer to resolve the domain names to their corresponding IP addresses. However, if the hosts file is found to contain a valid entry for a given hostname or domain name, then this is picked up and used by the operating system. Where is the hosts File Located? Windows: In case of the Windows operating system, the hosts file is located at: %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts In most cases this should be: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts Unix/Linux: In case of Linux it is located at: /etc/hosts How to Block a Website? To block a specific website, all you have to do is just add a new entry for that site in the hosts file. I would prefer to backup the original file and create a new one instead of modifying it. So, if something goes wrong, you can just delete it and restore the original one! Well, here is a step-by-step procedure on how to create a new hosts file on Windows: Go to “My Computer” and you should see the “Menu bar” on top. In case of Vista and Win 7, just click “Alt” to unhide the “Menu bar”. Now in the menu bar, click on “Tools -> Folder Options”. In the “View” tab uncheck the option that says: “Hide extensions for known file types” and click on “OK”.

Open a new text pad (New Text Document.txt) and rename it to: hosts. You will get a pop-up message with a warning. Just click on “Yes”. *Please note that the renamed file hosts should not have any extension such as hosts.txt. Open the hosts file using the notepad. Now let us assume that you want to block the sites Facebook and Youtube on your computer. For this all you have to do is add the following lines to your hosts file: 127.0.0.1 facebook.com127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com127.0.0.1 youtube.com127.0.0.1 www.youtube.com Each entry should be placed on an individual line. The IP address and the hostname should be separated by a space or a tab. In this way, you can block any given website by just pointing it to the IP address 127.0.0.1. Navigate to %systemroot% -> system32 -> drivers -> etc. Here you should see the original hostsfile, rename it to hosts_bak. Just copy and paste the new hosts file that you have created. That’s it. You’ve now successfully blocked those websites from loading on your computer. If you are using Vista/Win 7 you may have to take ownership of the original hosts file before renaming it. How to Redirect a Website? Suppose you want to redirect Friendster.com to Google.com, all you have to do is just add the following lines to your hosts file: 74.125.236.72 friendster.com74.125.236.72 www.friendster.com Here 74.125.236.72 is the IP address of google.com. To find out the IP address of any given website, just go to command prompt and ping it. For example: ping google.com. You should get a ping response that displays the IP address as shown below: