Week 5

This week I would like to discuss the hosts file that used to be the directory for the entire internet.  Back when the internet was just a baby, the ‘hosts’ file was a file placed on every computer that was connected to the internet that had a list of IP addresses and friendly names for all other computers also connected to the internet. Every day at 2 AM, this list would be updated with any new computers that had been added. Of course, this system quickly became unsustainable and had to be replaced with a new system which later became known as DNS.

Interestingly, this hosts file still exists on all computers today, and still works just as it always had, albeit you (or your system administrator) are now the people in charge of maintaining the list.

One use for the hosts file that I have found recently is the Remote Desktop Connection app used within Pro versions of Windows. I’m not sure when the setting became a thing, but on the ‘Advanced’ tab on the connection dialog box is a checkbox that prompts you to use a web account to sign into the remote computer.

A screenshot of a computer AI-generated content may be incorrect.

This setting is sometimes necessary if your computer is enrolled in a work or school domain to ensure secure connections. One unintended side effect of this feature is you can no longer use the local IP address of the computer to connect; you need to use the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) instead.

A screen shot of a computer AI-generated content may be incorrect.


Well, for my particular application I was connecting to a remote ‘work or school’ computer over a VPN and had to use the local DNS server of the network I was connected to as I needed to remote into local machines on the local network and a remote machine on the VPN network. This meant that not only could I not use the IP of the remote machine since it wasn’t a FQDN, I also couldn’t use the remote FQDN since the local DNS server had no record of the remote computer.

A quick Google search later revealed that adding the remote computer’s FQDN and IP address to my local computer’s hosts file would work, and sure enough it worked flawlessly.


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