At different times, a need for Editing hosts file often arises on a device. Many times, it is because of a cyber-attack or some other reasons. The editing helps providing users a control access over network traffic and their websites conveniently.

These hosts file had been used to fix hosts names prior to the DNS and are in use from ARPANET. These are big documents help aiding the name resolution of network.

These hosts file are placed safely in networking of Windows by Microsoft. It is a reason there is small variation if they are used in US X, Linux or Windows. In every platform, the syntax remains usually same. A majority of hosts file may carry multiple entries for different loopback. So, it can be used for a primary example for a general syntax.

Here, the first section will be its place to redirect its address to. The next section will be to address that a user needs to redirect and the last section is made for comment. By a use of space, you can separate these sections; however for convenience of reading is usually separated by 1 or 2 tabs.

Now, let’s check the hosts file accessing from multiple operating systems.

Windows 8, 8.1 or 10 OS

In windows 8 and 10, you will find it a little difficult to open apps being an administrator; however the difficulty level is not that high. For that, search the Notepad and after that, right-click over it at search results. Then, select to run as administrator. Those who are having Windows 10 OS, it will be available on Start Menu.

Once you complete this step, open the next file by File > Open Feature as below:

c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

After that, edit it as normal.

Windows 7 OS

For accessing hosts file from Windows 7 OS, you again need to open the Notepad using below mentioned command where you can easily edit these file.

notepad c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Once the editing is done, you should immediately save them to make use of it. Here, you can also block Facebook and once you have done editing, you should check by accessing Facebook over internet explorer. As Facebook is blocked, you won’t be able to access it.

Editing In Ubuntu

The users of Ubuntu 10.04 OS can make editions in the hosts file straight from the terminal. For this purpose, you can either use any preferred editor or can take help of any GUI text editor. Let’s take an instance of VIM. In Ubuntu, the hosts file are often placed in /etc/folder. However, it locates in the drive’s root. For editing these file, you should open the drive as root by using sudo.

cwelker@ubuntu:~$ sudo vim /etc/hosts

Now, the file is open and you can easily edit for redirecting any website in no result. In Ubuntu, you will find one more section that is IP6. Most of the times, it requires you to make edition at its top part and overlook IP6. After editing, save that file and check with the edited website if it is showing same result after redirecting as edited by you or not.

Mac OS X – All Versions

For Mac OS X users, the hosts file accessing is quite same as in Ubuntu. Start from terminal and pick any preferred editor.

cwelker:~ cwelker$ sudo vim /etc/hosts

The hosts file will resemble a bit alike Windows with a minor difference of explanation. Here, try to redirect any website like Facebook and here, you will see 0.0.0.0 loopback which will direct you a new test page for computers Apache.

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