I had the same problem after re-installing my win2k a few days ago.
All the posts regarding this problem didn't help... so finally I
figured it out myself. Win2k Pro screwed up the networking
installation. You need to
1) open up Networkn and Dial-up connection, select the current local
area connection
2) right click on it to view properties, select Internet Protocol
(TCP/IP), UNINSTALL & RE-INSTALL it. After that, the hosts file works
again!

Thanks!! But I can´t uninstall the TCP/IP properties,
because Win2k answer "You can't uninstall TCP/IP because
the Simple TCP/IP Service is using this protocols". I
stopped the service in the Control Panel, but nothing, the
same message, I can't uninstall. Even, I deselected TCP/IP
protocol from the network card properties, but Windows is
still not reading the hosts file. I re-start Windows in
safe mode, but nothing again, the same error message when
I try to uninstall TCP/IP.

I even re-install the service pack 4, but nothing
happens...

Any other idea??


>-----Original Message-----
>I had the same problem after re-installing my win2k a few
days ago.
>All the posts regarding this problem didn't help... so
finally I
>figured it out myself. Win2k Pro screwed up the networking
>installation. You need to
>1) open up Networkn and Dial-up connection, select the
current local
>area connection
>2) right click on it to view properties, select Internet
Protocol
>(TCP/IP), UNINSTALL & RE-INSTALL it. After that, the
hosts file works
>again!
>.
>