Creating a Host File.

[Ron Thompson]

I am having problems with my internet connection. I use a
LAN connection and I sure like it.
However, sometimes my connection works find and at other
times it does not.
My internet service provider said that since I have
Windows XP I must create a Host File to get my connection
working properly.
I have never heard of a Host File let along know how to
create or set one up.
Can anyone help me?

Thanks

 

[JeffO]

If your ISP told you "you need a hosts file" but didn't
give you the parts you need from them, they're lame as
hello.
On XP a hosts file resides at:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

It's just a plain-text file, but instead of having
the ".txt" extension, it has no extension at all.
The following shows an example. The first line is basic to
all PC's. the 127.0.0.1 is the loop-back and is identical
on all PC's. Default "stock" hosts files have only that
one line.
The lines after that are what your ISP should've given
you. It tells your computer the IP address and name of the
DNS and/or WINS servers of your ISP, plus an email server,
if they have that seperately. I just made up random IP
addresses and server names to use as examples.
You can create such a file in Notepad and save it
as "hosts" (without extension and without a dot)into the
path mentioned above.
This will make this info static. If you ever change ISP's,
you'll want to delete everything except the "127.0.0.1
localhost" line.

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.127.127.127 server1.ISP.net #Primary DNS
127.127.127.128 server2.ISP.net #Secondary DNS
127.127.127.129 server3.ISP.net #E-Mail Server