Why edit hosts file

If you want to test redirects, you can also add the www or non-www version as well. Here is an example of what we added to our hosts file.

You can then launch your browser and navigate to the domain you inserted. You can test things such as logging into your WordPress admin dashboard, click around the site, etc. Once you are fully satisfied, you can remove the DNS information from your hosts file. If you want a quick and easy method, we recommend checking out Gas Mask. Click on Applications and then on Utilities. Press Enter again to begin editing the file. Move down to the bottom with the arrows on your keyboard.

Then insert your IP address which you obtained above and your domain name in our example we are using wpdev. Then press Enter. You should see a wrote confirmation at the bottom of the screen.

Then close the terminal. All of that and much more, in one plan with no long-term contracts, assisted migrations, and a day-money-back-guarantee. Your current host could be costing you time and money — get them back with Kinsta.

Learn more. Well there are two main reasons. First -- and this is minor -- when you go to a site that's in your Hosts file, it will resolve the address a few milliseconds faster than it would if your computer looked it up on DNS. Using this to speed up your address resolution is too much trouble. If you're always visiting the same sites -- and most of us are -- you'd be better off using the lightweight caching Dnsmasq DNS server.

This program automatically saves your DNS queries so that the next time you visit a site, your computer looks it up in the local Dnsmasq cache instead of wasting time going to DNS.

This can save as much as 50 percent of your DNS lookup time. Where Hosts files really shine is by letting you block ads, spyware sites, malware sites, and tracking sites. It does this by blocking your computer from connecting to annoying sites. Specifically, you can list the sites you never want to visit in the Hosts file and give them the loopback address of What happens then is when a site, email, or what-have-you tries to steer you to a dodgy address, the Hosts file bounces it back and you're kept from going to the questionable domain.

Now you may ask yourself "how do you know which sites to avoid? Fortunately, there are three host files ready to go, which include a large list of known ads servers, tracking cookies sites, and other web locations you'll want to avoid.

There's also the Hosts File Project , but unlike the others, which are frequently updated, Hosts File Project file hasn't been updated in over a year. To use any of these, you must first make a backup of your existing Hosts file. On some operating systems you may not have one.

I typically rename my existing file hosts. You then create a file named "hosts". You never use an extension with the name, such as hosts. Copyright Pagely, Inc. Hostname — usually, this is the domain name that you want to map to the associated IP address. Use this format: 1. Step 1: Open Terminal To get started, open the Terminal application. Meet Pagely. Tagged: basics DNS. Was this article helpful? Free Sign Up No hidden costs. No credit card needed. A hosts file which is used by operating systems to map a connection between an IP address and domain names before going to domain name servers.

This file is a simple text file with the mapping of IPs and domain names. You can use this to block advertisers, trackers, block marketing, or third party websites, block ads, banners, 3rd party page counters, or sites to protect your privacy. You can decide entirely what you wish to block and even most hijackers and possibly unwanted programs. We can utilize it as a firewall in our local system. You know during the development, you need to run your web application on the localhost for verification.

Websites can run on the localhost, There are some limitations in the localhost, you want to review your website on the custom domain before launching on the public domain suppose you have developed the e-commerce.

You want to debug some payment gateway issue but your payment gateway is not supporting localhost URL or IP in the case of successful payment.