Modifying Your Hosts File In Windows Vista & Windows 7

Often it is necessary to check any changes, particularly when you are moving your hosting from one server to another. Luckily there is a way to override the location (IP address for the tech savvy) your browser navigates to when you type a domain name into a browser. Following these steps will allow you to quickly alter your hosts file, which exists only to allow you to override the standard DNS resolving methods, and access a new server before the changeover to the new server is complete.

First from the start menu find notepad and right click to select run as administrator.

Then from the file menu select open.

Your host file will be contained in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\ you’ll need to select the all files option from the Text Files drop down list.

Select the file named hosts

Then add the following 2 lines, replacing the numbers and the domain.com.au sections with the values supplied by your provider:

111.222.333.444 domain.com.au
111.222.333.444 www.domain.com.au