#Hosts file location how to

This page appears on your screen right now because such a process has worked. This process is necessary because computers only understand numbers while humans are pretty bad at remembering them. The browser then follows that IP address to load the website. web address or URL) and returns its IP address, which is a string of seemingly random numbers, to the browser - each website resides at an IP address. This server then looks up the website’s domain name (a.k.a. By default, that’s the server of the Internet provider. Whenever you access a website via its domain name, such as, the browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc.) first queries your DNS server.įor most homes, the Wi-Fi router holds the information of the DNS server in use. Here’s a typical example of the role DNS plays: (A DNS server is not to be confused with Dynamic DNS, which works somewhat the opposite way.) The hosts file is the original way of binding a domain with an IP address in the early days of inter-connected computers - the foundation of the Internet - before the DNS server came into existence.Ī DNS server is like a public directory of the Internet. It’s a manual way to map a domain, such as, to a particular IP address of your choosing. When edited in a certain way, the hosts file works as the computer’s local DNS mapper. In other words, you can delete the default hosts file, and nothing will happen.

#Hosts file location how to

It’s there, but it doesn’t do anything other than contain brief information on what it is and how to use it. What the host file is, and how to handle itĮvery computer running Windows, macOS, or Linux has its hosts file. Extra: HostsMan - the Windows app to handle hosts file.How to handle the host file on a Windows computer.What the host file is, and how to handle it.