Multihomed hosts file

[Guest]

Hello,

I am attempting to create a hosts file that includes a number of multihomed
devices. This is not working. I read an article that stated that older
versions of windows did not accept a host file with multiple IPs tied to the
same DNS name. However it did not mention if this restriction was still in
effect. Is it still not possible to create a hosts file containing
multihomed devices?

Thanks,
Bryant

 

[Doug Sherman [MVP]]

No - hosts files are read in a linear fashion and when a match is found, no
further parsing takes place. If instead you use a DNS server with round
robbin enabled, you can alter this behavior. However, remember that once a
name is resolved, the result is cached and the cached IP will be used until
its TTL expires or the cache is flushed.

Doug Sherman
MCSE, MCSA, MCP+I, MVP