Question

hosts file not working properly (Windows XP Pro SP2)

Asked by: poisa

I'm trying to edit my hosts file but the changes are applied partially.
Here's my current hosts file:

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host

127.0.0.1       localhost
127.0.0.1       yahoo.com
127.0.0.1       www.yahoo.com
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx     somedomain.com

1) if I type yahoo.com or www.yahoo.com in IE6 or FireFox I get the yahoo.com website. I am expecting to prevent IE from connecting to yahoo.com (of course blocking yahoo.com is just for testing) but I'm not being able to.

2) I'm working on moving a domain from one server to another running Plesk. In the hosts file, instead of xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx I have the IP of the NEW dedicated server where I am running BIND (controlled by Plesk). The zones for that domain are working fine, but the domain actually resolves to some other IP. What I'm trying to do is to make my XP box connect to the NEW server instead of the server where the domain is currently resolving. This way I can test that everything in the new serverbefore I actually change the domain's nameservers.

Here's the weird thing. If I ping from my XP box to somedomain.com I get the NEW server's IP (this is what I want), but if I type http://somedomain.com in IE I go to the OLD server (this is not what I want).

Another test:
I tried adding my pop email server in the hosts file and setting it to the localhost (127.0.0.1) IP. Pinging it works as expected, but Outlook still manages to find the old server.

I also tried ipconfig /flushdns to no avail, although ipconfig /displaydns shows all the contents of my hosts file.

Clearing IE's cache/cookies doesn't work either.

Ideas?

Thanks,
Poisa

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Asked On
2005-12-26 at 09:44:19ID21675563
Tags

file

,

hosts

,

working

,

xp

,

windows

Topic

Windows XP Operating System

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
9

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Expert Comment

by: rsivanandanPosted on 2005-12-26 at 10:01:43ID: 15551488

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Expert Comment

by: poisaPosted on 2005-12-26 at 10:05:04ID: 15551504

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Expert Comment

by: rsivanandanPosted on 2005-12-26 at 10:19:48ID: 15551567

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Expert Comment

by: poisaPosted on 2005-12-27 at 10:11:38ID: 15557043

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Accepted Solution

by: rsivanandanPosted on 2005-12-27 at 20:07:35ID: 15560579

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Expert Comment

by: poisaPosted on 2005-12-28 at 11:51:47ID: 15565076

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Expert Comment

by: rsivanandanPosted on 2005-12-28 at 20:01:36ID: 15568417

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Expert Comment

by: poisaPosted on 2005-12-28 at 20:06:37ID: 15568438

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Expert Comment

by: rsivanandanPosted on 2005-12-28 at 20:12:35ID: 15568469

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