Skip to Content
Windows NT TCP/IP Network Administration
book

Windows NT TCP/IP Network Administration

by Craig Hunt, Robert Bruce Thompson
October 1998
Beginner
512 pages
14h 22m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Windows NT TCP/IP Network Administration

The Host Table

The host table is a simple text file that associates IP addresses with host names. On NT systems, the table is in the file %SystemRoot%\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts. Each table entry in the hosts file contains an IP address separated by white space from a list of host names associated with that address. Comments begin with #.

The host table on the workstation pooh might contain the following entries:

#
# Table of IP addresses and host names
#
172.16.12.2 	pooh.ttgnet.com pooh
127.0.0.1 	localhost
172.16.12.1 	thoth.ttgnet.com thoth www
172.16.12.4 	wotan.ttgnet.com wotan
172.16.12.3 	kerby.ttgnet.com kerby
172.16.1.2 	kiwi.ttgnet.com kiwi
172.16.6.10 	thor.sales.ttgnet.com thor.sales thor

The first entry in the sample table is for pooh itself. The IP address 172.16.12.2 is associated with the host name pooh.ttgnet.com and the alternate host name (or alias) pooh. The host name and all of its aliases resolve to the same IP address, in this case 172.16.12.2.

Aliases provide for name changes, alternate spellings, and shorter host names. They also allow for generic host names. Look at the entry for 172.16.12.1. One of the aliases associated with that address is www. www is the generic name most users expect to find when searching for information via the Web. Other commonly used generic host names are ns for name servers, mailhost for mail servers, and news for network news servers.

The second entry in the sample file assigns the address 127.0.0.1 to the host name localhost. As we ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

Windows Server 2003 Security: A Technical Reference

Windows Server 2003 Security: A Technical Reference

Roberta Bragg

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 1565923774Catalog PageErrata