The Hosts File
If you have an office LAN, especially one with mixed and matched computers, you probably, like me, have a chart of computer names and IP addresses posted on your wall—not just computers, but routers, firewalls, monitored devices, and all manner of devices. (Who knows? Your next espresso machine may have an Ethernet port on it.)
On a corporate or enterprise LAN, the LAN administrators enter each device into the organization’s domain name system (DNS) so that you can type a command such as ping firewall instead of needing to type ping firewall.mycompany.com or, worse, something like ping 192.168.56.102.
On a home or small office LAN, though, you probably don’t have your own domain name server. The hosts file is the answer to this ...
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