[SOLVED] Specifying a Host Location

[Jen-a-Bean]

I can access my desktop server from my laptop using http://192.168.1.70:8080, but I'd like to be able to just type in http://computerName instead.  As I understand I have to edit the hosts file on the computer (c:\system32\drivers\ect\hosts).  This is what I've added:

 

192.168.1.70:8080 computerName

 

It doesn't seem to work?

 

Also if I try the same process on a system running Vista I can't even save modifications to the hosts file.  I even tried saving the file to the desktop, and then copying to to the proper folder.  Since it saves as a TXT file it doesn't overwrite the file in the proper directory.  Any ideas?

[rajivgonsalves]

That should work first of all your host file has to be in the windows directory

 

you will have to run notepad as adminstrator to edit and save the file

[trq]

The hosts file maps hostname's to ip addresses, you cannot place a port within it.

 

192.168.1.70 computerName

 

then....

 

http://computerName:8080

 

should work.

[Jen-a-Bean]

I believe I have it working now!

 

When I ran Notepad as an administrator it allowed me to save the file to the location I needed.  I'll never get used to having to tell the computer I'm running a program as an admin after being logged into an admin account.

 

The location of the file should actually be c:\windows\system32... as Rajiv noted.  I neglected the windows part when typing the path in my original message.

 

Once I removed the port number from the hosts file it was able to redirect properly.

 

Thanks again for the help all!