Is it possible, via the hosts file or something else on a local client, to capture urls and translate them to IPs? Like, in the event that a wider DNS problem is preventing you from getting to a site via the url?

7/28/2009 4:29:26 PM

Short answer: Yes. OS-dependent but yes ultimately. (By URL I assume you mean hostnames)
Long answer: If DNS fails, you have more issues to worry about than trying to hack the hosts file.

7/28/2009 4:45:46 PM

This isn't something I am managing, it's downstream from me. It's a Facebook app ( ) and I was wondering if I could put the IP in some file locally and every time my machine tried to query the url it would just get the IP provided by me locally rather than going out to the DNS server and failing.

It should propagate soon enough, but this was an fyi for down the road if something like this comes up again.

7/28/2009 4:55:00 PM

notepad %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

add a line like:
5.4.3.2 hostnameof.server.com

7/28/2009 5:31:01 PM

Quote :

"If DNS fails, you have more issues to worry about than trying to hack the hosts file."

7/28/2009 7:00:50 PM

^^i believe he knows how the fuck a line in the hosts file works.

7/28/2009 7:05:48 PM