How to block / redirect websites using the Windows host file

[Mark]

How to block / redirect websites using the Windows host file

Really quick one liner of what a host file is.
The hosts file is a computer file used in an operating system to map hostnames to IP addresses. The hosts file is a plain-text file and is traditionally named hosts.


Steps

1) The file we're looking for is located in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc




2) Open the hosts file in Notepad.




3) Your hosts file will look similar to below, (except I have a few other entries in mine that I've blurred out...) simply add the desired website at the bottom, eg.
127.0.0.1 websitehere.com
That will redirect websitehere.com to 127.0.0.1 (localhost)




4) File > Save As > hosts
Make sure All Files is selected (*.*)




5) Try to get to the website...




6) And if we try a ping...




Simple. Remember this only works on the machine that you do it on.

[Drumm]

This can be used for blocking ads as a System-Wide thing.