Hostname redirection using Hosts file

Question

We can use C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file to map hostname with IP addresses like this

127.0.0.1 localhost

But is it possible to assign one hostname to another like this?

localhost a_new_host_name

Answer 1

From wikipedia :

The hosts file contains lines of text consisting of an IP address and one or more hostnames, each field separated by white space (blank or tabulation characters). Comment lines may be included; they are indicated by a hash character (#) in the first position of such lines. For example,

#This is an example of the hosts file
127.0.0.1  localhost loopback

Answer 2

You could put in the hosts file:

a_new_host_ip_addr localhost 

Beyond that, I think you would need to set up a local (or nearby) DNS server with CNAME entries to map localhost to some other host (and you'd have to remove 'localhost' from the hosts file for this to work).

Answer 3

You may have got the impression that some kind of 'redirection' is possible from things like

127.0.0.1    ads.stackoverflow.com

in your hosts file. Purely as an example, you understand. This does not conflict with the usual definition of localhost elsewhere in the same hosts file.

The Internet has a number of sample hosts file which ensure that unwanted images don't appear on your screen.