What the heck is a host file!?

Question

My laptop is really screwed up. Really. I sat on my D-Link (which was stupid, I know) and broke it. Since then I haven't used my laptop. Anyway, I recently bought a new D-Link! Yaaaaaay. So my computer has actually been working better, a little faster anyway. Until it came to downloading msn. I first tried to sign in to the program I already had and it wouldn't allow me to. I did a troubleshoot and it told me there were some msn related files in my host files that were interfering. I hit the 'repair' button but it just kept telling me that it couldn't fix the problem. So I uninstalled Windows Live and then reinstalled it but I STILL have the same problem! What do I do? I don't even know what half that crap means..

Answer 1

The hosts file is a file used to set certain internet hosts with an IP address. Back in the old days, when there were just a few machines on the internet, that was used to help you connect to another site.



Today, most connections happen via domain name services, but the hosts file can be very helpful.



Rather then go into the geek stuff, do a search of your hard disk for a gile called "HOSTS". Windows installs it in some stupid location, but you should be able to find it. There may be some entries placed there by your application that are preventing your connections.

Answer 2

Normal usage is people reading your web pages, posting to your forum, etc. Heavy downloading is something you have to discuss before you pay for the account. All hosting companies have plans for heavy bandwidth/disk space usage, but that's not the plans listed on their site. Pick a few hosts that meet your needs otherwise (good uptime, fast, good tech support) and see what prives they'll give you for the bandwidth you want. (You won't get truly unlimited bandwidth - they don't have that much to give you - they buy limited bandwidth from their upstream.)

Answer 3

Tell us exactly what the error message said. There is a file called hosts in x86_microsoft-windows-w..nfrastructure-other_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6000.16386_none_024e4071fa6fea95



that it may be complaining about.



That is in Vista.



It should contain



# Copyright (c) 1993-2006 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

::1 localhost

Answer 4

Does your error look somewhat like this?

http://uploads.neowin.net/forum/post-33791-1181055995.jpg





Here's a solution for you.

This should work. If it doesn't, I suggest getting immediate help from MSN by clicking there 'contact us' links.



C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc



Open the "hosts" file with notepad.



Remove the line relating to msn and the number e.g.



127.0.0.1 msn.com

Answer 5

Your host file is the first place your PC looks for name resolution.

Go to start>my computer>c:>windows>system32>drivers>etc>hosts.

Be careful of what you delete out of there. Make sure it is only the file that is interfering. Do no delete the file that says 127.0.0.1 or you could risk ever connecting to anything for a while.

Answer 6

yeaaaah yeaaaaah congo for ur new D-Link ;-)



and seems it coz of ur new modem it put another host location and ur msn is not accepting it :(



so in the mean time i dig the exact ans for this try this update ur system clock :) or restart ur laptop once ;-)



cheers!!!

Answer 7

i am sorry i don't now.Sorry