What is a host file line on a computer. Hosts file. How to change the hosts file

You probably know that the hosts file is available on the Windows operating system. It is also available on the Android operating system, where it is the most important component when accessing the Internet. Some applications use the file and edit settings in it, which may result in problems accessing some resources. The user can independently find and even edit the hosts file, however, provided that .

Our site has already talked about how to find out. If you don't have root rights, install them. You can find out how to do this on the well-known forum 4pda.ru - find a topic on it with firmware for your gadget.

Here click on the etc folder.

Find the hosts file and tap on it.

Select the program in which the file should be opened. For example, ES Editor.

The hosts file has opened.

You can edit it by clicking on the pencil.

Just remember that you need to do this very carefully. One wrong or extra character can lead to serious problems.

What is the Hosts file for?
The purpose of this system file is to assign certain website addresses to a specific IP.
This file is very popular with all kinds of viruses and malware in order to write their data into it or simply replace it.
The result of these actions may be signs of “insertion” of a site into browsers, which will ask to send an SMS when opening the browser, or blocking of various sites, at the discretion of the creators of the virus.

Where is the hosts file in windows?
For different versions of Windows OS, the location of the hosts file is slightly different:

Windows 95/98/ME: WINDOWS\hosts
Windows NT/2000: WINNT\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Windows XP/2003/Vista/Seven(7)/8: WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Moreover, the ending hosts, this is already the final file, not a folder. He doesn't have it.

What should the correct hosts file look like?
The “contents” of the hosts file are also slightly different for different versions of Windows, but not much. It “writes” in English why it is needed and how to make exceptions, giving one example. All lines starting with a # sign mean that they are commented out and do not affect the file.
Contents of the original hosts file for Windows XP:

#

#

#space.
#

#
# For example:
#

127.0.0.1 localhost

Contents of the original hosts file for Windows Vista:

# Copyright (c) 1993-2006 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
#space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a "#" symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
127.0.0.1 localhost::1 localhost

Contents of the original hosts file for Windows 7:

# Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
#space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a "#" symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
# localhost name resolution is handle within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost

Contents of the original hosts file for Windows 8:

# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost

As you can see, there are no significant differences in the contents of the host file for different versions of Windows.

How to open and edit the hosts file?
The hosts file can be found in standard Windows Notepad.
This is probably the most interesting part of the article.
First of all, you need to understand why change this file at all? Yes, in order to deny access to certain sites. Thus, by changing this file and writing the site address into it, the user will not be able to access it through any .
In order to change the hosts file, it is advisable to open it as administrator () by right-clicking on the file and selecting "Run as administrator". Or open Notepad this way and open the file in it.

For quick action, you can simply click the Start button and select Run ( win+r) () and enter in the line:

notepad %windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

As a result, this file will open in Notepad.

In order to block access to the site(let's assume it will be test.ru), you just need to add a line with this site at the very bottom:

127.0.0.1 test.ru

As a result, the file will have the following content:

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
#space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a "#" symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

# This HOSTS file created by Dr.Web Anti-rootkit API

# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost
127.0.0.1 test.ru

Each new site that you want to block must be started on a new line and entered, not forgetting the local IP address 127.0.0.1

Also, to edit the hosts file, there is a program HOSTS EDITOR, which you can download and read the description from.
The way it works is that it helps edit the hosts file.
From the screenshot below the principle of its operation is clear; everything is done in a couple of clicks. Adding is done by clicking on +.

After editing, do not forget to click on the save button (2 button "Save changes" to the left of the "+" button).

You can also change this file for good purposes, for example speed up site loading.
How it works?
When you visit a site, you see its domain name, which has letters. But all sites on the Internet have an IP address, and names are already assigned using DNS. I won’t go into details of this process; that’s not what the article is about. But here you need to know that the hosts file has priority when accessing sites, and only after it does a request to DNS occur.
In order to speed up the loading of a site, you need to know its IP address and domain.
The IP address of a site can be found using various services, for example or.
A domain is the name of a website.
For example, let’s speed up the loading of this site where you are reading an article by explicitly specifying the IP address and domain to the file.
Then the added line will be:

91.218.228.14 website

This speeds up page loading in a couple of seconds, and sometimes can give access if you cannot access the site using standard means.

Still possible redirect to another site using hosts file.
To do this, you need to know the IP address of the site and its domain (as in the case described above), then the added line will be like this:

91.218.228.14 test.ru

And now, after entering test.ru into the address bar of your browser, you will be redirected to the site specified in the IP address..

If you want to clean hosts file, then you can do this by simply deleting the content and inserting the original text from the description above (under spoilers).

Some nuances in the hosts file:

Always make sure you have a scroll bar on the side and always scroll to the bottom of the window. This is due to the fact that some viruses are registered in an area hidden outside the window.

In some cases, usually if you cannot save the file, you need to log in under the Administrator account.

Sometimes, due to viruses, this file may be hidden. Read the article.

The two methods described (redirection and acceleration) may not produce the desired result. The fact is that several sites can be located on one IP address, this is especially true for external IP addresses provided by services.

Due to the fact that viruses love this file, its attributes can be changed to Hidden And Read-only.

Check the file attributes if the hosts file cannot be saved.

Thus, you can easily and free of charge block access to sites in Windows by editing the hosts file.

Where is the hosts file located?? I can’t access many sites, mostly anti-virus programs, friends say I have a virus on my computer, and problems are caused by it. My antivirus program is regularly updated, I heard in Windows XP, there is a hosts file and if you edit it properly, the problem will go away, but if you do it incorrectly, the Internet will completely disappear, can you tell me where it is and how to edit it?

Where is the hosts file located?

Note: Do you want to know how virus programs use this very important file, and how you can use this secret weapon yourself for good purposes. What to do when the hosts file is completely missing from the system or you have two hosts files. What to do when your websites do not open: Odnoklassniki, VKontakte, mail.ru, then be sure to read our new article after reading this article.

In Windows XP and Windows 7, there is a very small and good file with which you can control your Internet surfing, the vast majority of personal computer users do not know about it, and if they do know, they prefer to bypass it for fear of doing anything that’s not true, this file is called hosts. Why is it needed?

When you enter the name of a site, for example, mail.ru, into the address bar of your browser, know that a special DNS server located on the Internet immediately converts the name mail.ru into a set of numbers, which is a unique IP address for each site, to For example, for mail.ru it is 94.100.191.204. Since the Internet server where the mail.ru website is located does not contain names, but contains only numbers, the names were specially invented for you and me, so that we can remember them more easily. The hosts file is needed to speed up work on the Internet by bypassing access to the DNS server, that is, if you and I write the following information in the hosts file 94.100.191.203 mail.ru, then the mail.ru website will load directly from us, bypassing the DNS server . But you need to register everything correctly, otherwise you won’t get anywhere at all or you’ll end up in the wrong place. This is the “wrong way” that the creators of virus programs use. Now about everything in detail!

The most important thing to remember is that a request to the hosts file in all browsers has priority over access to DNS servers. In simple words, any browser, before making your request, always looks at the information located in the hosts file.

For example, if in the hosts file we enter other information instead of 94.100.191.203 mail.ru, for example 217.20.147.94 mail.ru, then by typing mail.ru in any browser, instead of the mail.ru mail service, we will get to the Odnoklassniki website , since the IP address 217.20.147.94 is the address of the Odnoklassniki website.

Any system administrator, and even a simple user, must guard the hosts file like the apple of his eye. Now about viruses. Virus writers, one might say, are happy to use hosts file for your own purposes. When a virus gets onto a user’s computer, it often changes the file hosts , therefore, if you have problems accessing any sites, first of all you need to check your machine for the presence of malware, and then return the file hosts pristine appearance.

The hosts file is located by the address C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts, where (C:) is the letter of the system partition, it is this file that decides which sites are worthy of your attention and which are not. The hosts file may be hidden; to see it, you need to enable the system to show hidden folders and files. Computer->Organize->Folder and Search Options->View, then uncheck the itemHide protected system files, and mark the pointShow hidden files and folders and drives

The hosts file opens by double-clicking the right mouse; when prompted to select a program to open the file, select Notepad.

Friends, if you did not find the hosts file in the C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\ folder, it means the virus has changed the location of the file in the registry key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Tcpip\Parameters\DataBasePath,

By the way, you may have the hosts file where you need it, but the operating system will use the hosts file located in a completely different place. You can find out exactly where the other hosts file created by the virus is by looking at the DataBasePath value. You will need to return the correct value to the key, as in the screenshot.

So we found out where is the hosts file located, now let's learn how to edit it, if you want to simply fix the file automatically (recommended) using the Microsoft Fix it 50267 utility, then go to the website of its creators and do it with two clicks.

Here is a sample of the original hosts file, by default the file should only have one entry 127.0.0.1 localhost

You can directly copy it from me and edit the hosts file using notepad.

Original hosts file in Windows XP

# (C) Microsoft Corp., 1993-1999

# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.

# This file contains mappings of IP addresses to hostnames.

# Each element must be on a separate line. The IP address must

# should be in the first column and must be followed by the appropriate name.

# The IP address and hostname must be separated by at least one space.

# Additionally, some lines may contain comments

# (such as this line), they must follow the node name and be separated

# from it with the symbol "#".

# For example:

# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # origin server

# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # client node x

127.0.0.1 localhost

Original hosts file in Windows 7

# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.

# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each

# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should

# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.

# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one

#space.

# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual

# lines or following the machine name denoted by a "#" symbol.

# For example:

# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server

# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.

# 127.0.0.1 localhost

# ::1 localhost

If we want, we can deny access to some sites completely using this file. You can do this this way: after the numbers 127.0.0.1 you need to enter the domain name of this site. For example, in most cases, a virus program prohibits visiting sites that distribute anti-virus software; in the case of Kaspersky anti-virus, it will look like this:

127.0.0.1 kaspersky.ru

And you and I can use this secret weapon, for example, by protecting our children from accidentally visiting sites with certain content without resorting to programs like Parental Control, for example, we will write:

127.0.0.1 is the name of a site that you consider dangerous.

127.0.0.1 porno.ru

127.0.0.1 sex.ru

The computer will look for the addresses of these sites on the hard drive, you don’t need to enter too many addresses either, the computer will noticeably slow down.

How else can you use the hosts file? It's no secret that only digital addresses are used on the Internet. The names of sites, for example: R emontcompa.ru, were invented so that the common user would remember them more easily. The computer converts letters that we understand, but are not familiar to, into numbers using the DNS service; naturally, it takes a lot of time for the computer to contact remote DNS servers.

To quickly load your favorite site, in the hosts file, you need to specify its address in numbers directly, bypassing the DNS service. For example, we constantly need the mail.ru mail service, since its site IP is: 94.100.191.203, we write this information in the hosts file, first enter the IP, and then the server name.

127.0.0.1 localhost

94.100.191.203 mail.ru

A space is required.

Friends, recently virus writers have come up with a trick if, for example, you open the hosts file

in a notepad, then at first glance nothing suspicious will seem to you, the contents of the hosts file will be standard,

but if you scroll the scroll arrow to the end, to the very end of the hosts file, then there you can find, for example, such malicious entries; of course, they need to be deleted.

After some time, you will need to check the hosts file again; if malicious entries are made again, it means that it’s on your computer

the virus is working. Read our articles.

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. Today I want to talk about something quite simple in its design, like Hosts file.

What is noteworthy is that it lives on almost all operating systems (and therefore all computers of Internet users), from Linux to Windows 7. Another distinctive property of it is that it does not have an extension, but this is due precisely to the fact that it works it should be in any OS, which means it must be universal.

But this is not the main thing. Although he is a relic of the past, there are still a lot of ways to use Hosts both for good purposes and not so good. For example, viruses and virus writers love it very much and often use it either to replace official sites with their phishing duplicates, or to block the ability to update your antivirus program.

However, network equipment needs IP-based devices and nothing else. Therefore, a list of correspondence between the host name and its IP address () was manually generated. Such a list was called Hosts and was sent to all nodes of the local network. Everything was great until the moment when it was no longer possible to use this method due to the huge number of records contained in this file. Sending it out has become problematic.

In this regard, we decided to approach this issue differently, namely, to place on the Internet an entire (domain name system) that would store all these correspondence tables and user computers would contact the nearest one with the question of what kind of IP source corresponds to the Vasya.ru domain.

At the same time, everyone happily forgot about the Hosts file, but it still existed in all operating systems, except that its content was extremely meager. Usually there was and is still present only one entry:

127.0.0.1 localhost

For some reason, this IP address (more precisely the range 127.0.0.1 - 127.255.255.255) was chosen to designate the local host (private IP), i.e. the very computer you are sitting at (literally localhost - “this computer”). But, really, this is all for the old IPv4 (fourth version).

And in IPv6, which is now coming into use (due to the fact that the number of addresses included in the previous version is no longer enough for everyone), such an entry will look a little different:

::1 localhost

But the essence is the same. Because Now both standards for specifying an IP address are still used or can be used, then in the Hosts file Usually both of these lines are present. True, there can be any kind of billboard written above them (depending on the OS used), but all those lines contain at the beginning the hash symbol # (hash), which means that these lines are comments and should not be taken into account.

On my old Windows Vista, the Hosts file now looks like this:

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp. # # This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows. # # This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each # entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should # be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name. # The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one # space. # # Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual # lines or following the machine name denoted by a "#" symbol. # # For example: # # 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server # 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host # This HOSTS file created by Dr.Web Anti-rootkit API 127.0.0.1 localhost:: 1 localhost

Recording syntax very simple - first indicate the IP address, and then, through any number of spaces (tab characters), enter the name of the host (computer, node or domain). A separate line is used for each entry of this kind.

Here the main question arises: what place does Hosts currently take in the process of establishing a correspondence between the domain names entered in the browser and the IP addresses that are hidden behind these domains? Well, as it turned out, it occupies a very important place, namely the first one. But first things first.

So, you enter Url address () into the address bar of your browser, or follow a link from your browser bookmarks, or from any web page open in it. In any case, the browser receives from you the path to the document you want to see.

In any case, the URL will contain the domain name of the site on which the document you are interested in is located (the site in our example). However, this domain corresponds to a very specific server (maybe virtual) where this very site is hosted. And this server must have must be an IP address, so that it is visible on the network and can be accessed.

Your browser cannot know which IP corresponds to the domain name contained in the Url (well, unless you have enabled caching of DNS records in this very browser and you have previously visited this node). Therefore he addresses first For clarification, refer specifically to the Hosts file on your computer.

If this domain is not found there (and the corresponding IP), then the browser will begin to torture DNS record caching service from Windows. If you previously accessed this domain and not much time has passed since then, then the DNS cache will give the browser this same IP address. The browser will receive it and open the document you requested.

If there are no records for this domain in the cache, then the browser will send a request to the nearest DNS server (most likely, it will be your server) and receive the required information from it. True, in this case there may be a slight delay in opening the web page you requested, but with modern Internet speeds this will be practically unnoticeable.

And this happens with absolutely any request to open a document from the Internet from your computer. Do you get it? Empty Hosts does not create any problems, but if you fill it out, and even with malicious intent, it may turn out that you enter the password for your Yandex wallet not on the official website of this payment system, but on a phishing resource with a similar design (see) .

How can this be? Well, no one is safe from virus infection (), and a virus can easily add the IP address of a phishing resource to Hosts and assign it the domain name money.yandex.ru, for example. This is where the danger lies.

On a fake social networking site, they may intercept the passwords you enter, they may require a fee for entry, or something else more creative. The saddest thing is that it is impossible to notice the substitution, because the correct domain name will appear in the address bar of the browser.

Where is the Hosts file located and how can I remove virus entries from it?

On the other side remove changes made by the virus even an absolute noob in computers can use the Host file. Usually the problem is to find where this file is located.

In older versions of Windows, such as XP or 2000, it was open to everyone and lived in the system folders at the following address:

Windows\System32\drivers\etc\

You won’t believe it, but he lives at the same address in both Windows 7 and Vista, but everything is somewhat more complicated there, because following the path:

C:\Windows\System32\drivers\

You won't find the etc folders there. The developers decided that ordinary mortals should not touch this file to avoid problems.

However, the hosts file in windows 7 and vista still exists, you just need to look for it, having received Administrator rights. Personally, I never even tried to figure out all this nonsense with rights, but I found a very simple way for myself to get around this limitation.

So, go to the “Start” button menu - “All Programs” and find the “Accessories” folder there. There are shortcuts inside it, among which it’s easy to see “Notepad”. Right-click on it and select from the context menu that appears "Run as Administrator":

Well, actually, half the battle is done. Now in notepad, select “File” - “Open” from the top menu. In a standard Windows Explorer window, find the desired etc folder (inside the Windows\System32\drivers\ directory), select “All files” from the drop-down list in the lower right corner and watch with happy eyes the appearance of this top-secret file:

It will be exactly without expansion, and the rest will be rubbish, it seems hosts.txt, viruses are very often created to distract your attention and ultimately confuse you. For a real file, they set the “Hidden” attribute, which can be checked or unchecked by simply right-clicking on the file and selecting the bottom “Properties” item:

And because in Windows, by default, extensions are not displayed for registered file types (that’s why they did this - I don’t understand), then the user finds hosts.txt without seeing either its extension, or the fact that there is another hosts in the same folder, but it is hidden from his eyes.

Making changes to the fake, he still achieves nothing, begins to tear out his hair, wring his hands and goes to the store to buy a new laptop in order to finally get into his favorite Contact, which the virus blocked on the old computer. Ahhh, horror.

Although, of course, the user may be advanced and enable the display of hidden and system files in the settings. In Windows Vista, to do this, go to “Control Panel” - “Folder Options” - “View” tab and move the checkbox to the “Show hidden folders and files” line. By the way, it would be better to uncheck the “Hide extensions...” line above:

Eat a very simple way to open this file. It will be enough to press the Win + R key combination on your keyboard (or select “Run” from the “Start” button menu), then enter the following line in the window that opens and press Enter:

Notepad %windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

But that's not the point. We still found where this secret (for Windows 7 and vista) file is located, and we must carefully examine it for possible abuse. If the initial examination of the patient does not reveal any pathologies, then look to the page scroll area in Notepad.

Sometimes the virus makes its entries after several hundred empty lines, thereby reducing the risk of your detection. If there is no scroll bar, then everything is great, but if there is, then use it and bring your Hosts to the form it should have from birth, i.e. It will be enough to have just two lines in it (no one needs comments):

127.0.0.1 localhost::1 localhost

Well if spoofing addresses in this file it is quite simple to represent, for example it might look like this:

127.0.0.1 localhost::1 localhost 77.88.21.3 site

How, in this case, is it carried out? blocking certain sites through Hosts? Well, just assign the private IP address 127.0.0.1 to the domain that needs to be blocked, for example, like this:

127.0.0.1 localhost::1 localhost 127.0.0.1 vk.com 127.0.0.1 odnoklassniki.ru

The smart browser finds this match and tries to get the desired document (web page) from your own computer, which, naturally, it fails and about which it will immediately inform you. By the way, this is a good way to block your children’s access to sites that you think they should not visit. Of course, you will still need to create a list of such sites or get them from somewhere, but if you wish, you can try.

As I already mentioned, in ancient times, when the Internet was still slow for most users, to speed up the opening of sites, they registered their IP names in Hosts. Another thing is that these same resources periodically changed their hosting and, along with it, their IP addresses. And the user, having forgotten about what he did six months ago to speed up the Internet, tries in vain to understand why his favorite resources are not available to him.

How to use Hosts when moving a website to a new hosting?

Well, and finally, I would like to talk about how, by making changes to the Hosts file, you can work with a site that has moved to a new hosting even before a new record is registered on all DNS servers (assigning a new IP address to your domain ). The method is very simple but effective.

So, you change hoster. Naturally, the IP address of your site also changes. How will people find out about this on the Internet? Everything is correct, using a network of DNS servers. By the way, you will take the first and most important step yourself by going to the control panel of your registrar and registering there the addresses of the NS servers of your new hoster.

It is from them that the new DNS will spread throughout the Internet. But this process is lengthy and in the worst case scenario it can take a couple of days. During this time, the site should be available on both the new and old hosting, so that users from all over the world would not be deprived of the opportunity to view it.

However, you yourself will be interested to know how your resource actually feels with the new hoster? Check the operation of all plugins and other things. Do you really have to wait from several hours to two days? After all, this is unbearable.

Firstly, you can try resetting the DNS cache on your own computer, because it may prevent you from seeing your resource on the new hosting if external DNS servers have already received a new record. How to do it? Again, everything is very simple. Press the Win+R key combination on your keyboard (or select “Run” from the Start button menu), then enter in the window that opens:

A very scary window called Command Prompt will open, where you will need to paste this command:

Ipconfig /flushdns

The regular paste buttons in the Command Prompt window don't work, so just right-click in the Command Prompt window and select Paste.

After that, click on “Enter”, the DNS cache will be cleared on your computer and you can try to open your site again. By the way, there may be a DNS cache in the browser itself, so clear it, or refresh the window while holding down the Shift button on the keyboard.

By the way, if you are interested, you can view the contents of the DNS cache by entering the following command into the command line:

Ipconfig /displaydns

Does the site still open on the old hosting? No problem. We find the Hosts file using the method described just above and add just one line to it:

109.120.169.66 website

Where 109.120.169.66 - it will be IP address of your new hosting, and then the domain name of your site will follow. All. While the rest of the world is admiring your resource on the old hosting, you have the opportunity to correct possible problems on the engine that has already been transferred to the new hosting. The thing is wonderful and I always use it.

Good luck to you! See you soon on the pages of the blog site