Windows: Map User Friendly Host Name With IP Address Using Host File
Background
Requirement: change the IP address of locally hosted website in IIS 8 of Windows server 2012 R2, since it was difficult for the client to remember the IP address every time.
Screen Shot of Expected Output
Before Changing host file
Now I am going to change this to some user-friendly name, for ex : www.Karthiksachin.com
After Changing the Host file
Let's see step by step how can we achieve this.
Before the steps, a brief Intro about host file:
What is host file?
In simple words, Host file is like a Telephone directory which will contain the number(IP Address) and associated address(Host Name). So when you give a Host name like www.google.com into your browser, then the Host file is started to see if you have the IP address for that site. If you have, then your computer will get it and act accordingly, otherwise it will ask the details to the ISP.
Location of host file in file system
The path to the Host file in Windows is *%systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\*where %systemroot% is usually c:\windows unless you installed Windows on a different partition. So the same can be written as c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts.
Windows 7
To access the host file in Windows 7 you can use the following command in the Run Line to open notepad and the file.
Then it will open the following text file as shown below,
http://csharpcorner.mindcrackerinc.netdna-cdn.com/article/how-to-give-the-user-friendly-host-name-for-asp-net-application-using-host-file/Images/image007.png http://csharpcorner.mindcrackerinc.netdna-cdn.com/article/how-to-give-the-user-friendly-host-name-for-asp-net-application-using-host-file/Images/image009.png
Then it will open the default file like below
Original File before changing how it looks,
img alt="" src="http://csharpcorner.mindcrackerinc.netdna-cdn.com/article/how-to-give-the-user-friendly-host-name-for-asp-net-application-using-host-file/Images/image011.png">
After changing the file as per requirement,
(Note: make sure you have taken the # symbol from that line because it denotes comment)
That's it from the host file point of view.
Now just change following in the IIS, like the below screen shots,
http://csharpcorner.mindcrackerinc.netdna-cdn.com/article/how-to-give-the-user-friendly-host-name-for-asp-net-application-using-host-file/Images/image017.pnghttp://csharpcorner.mindcrackerinc.netdna-cdn.com/article/how-to-give-the-user-friendly-host-name-for-asp-net-application-using-host-file/Images/image019.png
Output
Window Server 2012 R2
Output
