{"id":6956,"date":"2022-04-28T01:31:19","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T01:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/support\/?post_type=docs&p=6956"},"modified":"2022-09-17T10:38:13","modified_gmt":"2022-09-17T02:38:13","password":"","slug":"how-to-modify-your-hosts-file","status":"publish","type":"docs","link":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/support\/help\/how-to-modify-your-hosts-file\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Modify your Hosts File in Windows and Mac?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When do you need to edit your Hosts File<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Hosts file (hostfile) needs to be modified in cases when you need to manually override the DNS (domain name system) for a specific domain. When you do so, your local computer can directly access the IP address that you have specified in your hosts file.<\/span><\/p>\n

What you need to do is to add two entries: an entry for the IP address that you want the site to resolve, and an entry for one version of the web address of the domain. This is an example:<\/span><\/p>\n

100.00.000.001 <\/span>www.yourdomainhere.com
\n<\/span>100.00.000.001 yourdomainhere.com<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How to edit your Hosts File<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Select your corresponding OS and follow the steps as provided:<\/span><\/p>\n

For Windows<\/strong><\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Hit the Windows key from your keyboard.<\/span>
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Search \u201cnotepad\u201d.<\/span>
    \n<\/span>\"\"<\/li>\n
  3. Once the search results come up, right-click on Notepad and click on <\/span>Run as administrator<\/b>.<\/span>
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. You may receive an alert \u201cDo you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?\u201d Click on <\/span>Yes<\/b>.
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. From Notepad, click on File, then Open (or hit Ctrl + O from your keyboard), and search for this filename:<\/span>
    \n<\/span>c:\\Windows\\System32\\Drivers\\etc\\hosts
    \n<\/b>\"\"<\/li>\n
  6. At the last line, add the necessary information.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  7. Click on File, then Save, to save the modifications you have added.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    For Mac<\/strong><\/h3>\n
      \n
    1. From Finder, go to <\/span>Applications<\/b>.
      \n<\/span>\"\"<\/li>\n
    2. Then click on <\/span>Utilities<\/b>.
      \n\"\"<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
    3. And go to <\/span>Terminal<\/b>.
      \n\"\"
      \n<\/span><\/li>\n
    4. The Terminal window will now open.
      \n\"\"
      \n<\/span>
      \nEnter the command as follows:
      \nsudo nano \/private\/etc\/hosts
      \n<\/strong>
      \n<\/span><\/li>\n
    5. You will be asked to enter your user password. Type it in and hit Enter.
      \n<\/span><\/li>\n
    6. The hosts file will now open.
      \n\"\"
      \n<\/span>
      \nAdd your changes after the last line.<\/span><\/li>\n
    7. Click on Control + X to save the changes to the hosts file. You will be prompted to confirm the changes – click on Y on your keyboard.<\/span>
      \n<\/span><\/li>\n
    8. Then press Control+T to go back to the Terminal window.<\/li>\n
    9. Enter this command in the Terminal window to force the changes to take effect:<\/span>
      \n<\/span> dscacheutil -flushcache<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      When do you need to edit your Hosts File Hosts file (hostfile) needs to be modified in cases when you need to manually override the DNS (domain name system) for a specific domain. When you do so, your local computer can directly access the IP address that you have specified in your hosts file. What […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"doc_category":[31],"doc_tag":[],"class_list":["post-6956","docs","type-docs","status-publish","hentry","doc_category-web-hosting"],"year_month":"2026-07","word_count":322,"total_views":0,"reactions":{"happy":0,"normal":0,"sad":0},"author_info":{"name":"syd123","author_nicename":"syd123","author_url":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/support\/author\/syd123\/"},"doc_category_info":[{"term_name":"Web Hosting","term_url":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/support\/help-category\/web-hosting\/"}],"doc_tag_info":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/6956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/docs"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6956"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/6956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7941,"href":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/6956\/revisions\/7941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"doc_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_category?post=6956"},{"taxonomy":"doc_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_tag?post=6956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}