Windows XP TCP not using entry in HOSTS file

I was setting up a router today for a customer. As usual, I created an entry

192.168.0.1 router

in the hosts file so as to make it easier to access the router's config
page, especially for the customer after I've left, where it's a lot easier
to navigate to a "URL" of "router" rather than "192.168.0.1".

However Internet Explorer and also ping were unable to resolve this name: I
had to use the IP address rather than the name in the hosts file. Using the
IP address worked fine.

Everything looked sensible in the TCP configuration, though admittedly I
didn't do a thorough setting-by-setting comparion with my laptop. Can anyone
think what might be different about this PC from any other XP Home PC that
I've encountered in the past?

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Martin Underwood wrote:
> I was setting up a router today for a customer. As usual, I created an entry
>
> 192.168.0.1 router
>
> in the hosts file so as to make it easier to access the router's config
> page, especially for the customer after I've left, where it's a lot easier
> to navigate to a "URL" of "router" rather than "192.168.0.1".
>
> However Internet Explorer and also ping were unable to resolve this name: I
> had to use the IP address rather than the name in the hosts file. Using the
> IP address worked fine.
>
> Everything looked sensible in the TCP configuration, though admittedly I
> didn't do a thorough setting-by-setting comparion with my laptop. Can anyone
> think what might be different about this PC from any other XP Home PC that
> I've encountered in the past?

Strange! Programs (well, ping.exe at least) read the HOSTS file directly,
from my tests on Windows 2000. It could be that your HOSTS file has a file
extension (say .txt) and XP is set to hide file extensions, so the file
"HOSTS" may not actually exist.

You could have the security permissions setup incorrectly, or they could be
broken, which chkdsk would fix.

Maybe there's an illegal character in the hosts file entry (or maybe the
whole file) that's causing the problem, you could try creating a fresh one.
I assume you're entering the IP address, a tab, then the name? Have you typoed?

Try downloading Sysinternals' Filemon[1] and seeing if ping.exe is reading
the hosts file when you try to ping the host name.

[1] http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Filemon.html

HTH

Adam Piggott,
Proprietor,
Proactive Services (Computing)
http://www.proactiveservices.co.uk/
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