Ask a Question
or
Create a Poll
  1. Home /
  2. Questions /
  3. Computers
  4. / Computer Software
  5. / Internet Software
  6. / Web Browsers

by Jodie44 on June 29th, 2007

Jodie44

Question

Help answer this question below.

Do all web browsers access the Windows Host file, or just Internet Explorer?

  • Like
  • Report
Share:
Other

Answers. 1 helpful answer below.

  • by Wildcat on June 29th, 2007

    Wildcat

    You're gonna love this - the answer is yes... and no.

    Yes, by default web browsers like most other Windows software that the user interacts with does use the hosts file because of its convenience in mapping names to numbers. It is a lot quicker, for example, if I've visited http://www.somewhere.com in the last few days, for the browser to read the hosts file and determine exactly where on the internet www.somewhere.com is, than it is to send a request to my ISP's domain name server for the numeric address.

    Browsers are like telephones. They don't dial by name, they dial by number, in this case IP address. The hosts file is a convenient local directory before it has to "reach for the google pages" to find the number of the entity you've told it to look up.

    And NO because they don't HAVE to do it that way, and in fact can be told specifically NOT to do it that way. Also, bespoke software that contacts its own host, such as an online game, doesn't use the host file at all because it already has the IP address (or internet telephone number if you prefer) of where it's going.

    I hope that clears up the somewhat ambiguous first line of the answer.

    • Like
    • Report

    1 comment | Post one | Permalink

Want to attach an image to your answer? Click here.

Did this answer your question? If not, then ask a new question or create a poll.

More Questions. Additional questions in this category.

You're reading Do all web browsers access the Windows Host file, or just Internet Explorer?

Follow us on Facebook!

Related Ads

Related Questions

Professionally Researched

ANSWERBAG BUZZ

Host numbers of all browsers

Answerbag

a Demand Media company