i'm using wamp 5, windows XP. i have edited my host file in my local disk like the code below and it works
127.0.0.0 example.com
but i'd like to redirect to a particular folder, if i change it to the code below, it dont work
127.0.0.0/main/site example.com
how to redirect example.com to 127.0.0.0/main/site locally in my PC?
btw, i dont want to install any new software to solve this prob
You need to create a Virtual Hosts
Leave the HOST file as
127.0.0.1 example.com
When you define a Virtual Host you also tell it which folder is its DocumentRoot so that will send it to the right place when you use the address example.com in the browser.
Check out wampserver.com
After installing TeamViewer, I have changed the wampserver port to 8080, so the address is http://localhost:8080.
For the host file located at C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\, I have also made the change as below
BEFORE
127.0.0.1 www.example.com
AFTER
127.0.0.1:8080 www.example.com
When I access www.example.com, it doesn't redirect to my wampserver, how can I fix it?
I managed to achieve this by using Windows included Networking tool netsh.
As Mat points out : The hosts file is for host name resolution only, so a combination of the two did the trick for me.
Example
Overview
example.app:80
| <--Link by Hosts File
+--> 127.65.43.21:80
| <--Link by netsh Utility
+--> localhost:8081
Actions
Started my server on localhost:8081
Added my "local DNS" in the hosts file as a new line
127.65.43.21 example.app
Any free address in the network 127.0.0.0/8 (127.x.x.x) can be used.
Note: I am assuming 127.65.43.21:80 is not occupied by another service.
You can check with netstat -a -n -p TCP | grep "LISTENING"
added the following network configuration with netsh command utility
netsh interface portproxy add v4tov4 listenport=80 listenaddress=127.65.43.21 connectport=8081 connectaddress=127.0.0.1
I can now access the server at http://example.app
Notes:
- These commands/file modifications need to be executed with Admin rights
- netsh portproxy needs ipv6 libraries even only to use v4tov4, typically they will also be included by default, otherwise install them using the following command: netsh interface ipv6 install
You can see the entry you have added with the command:
netsh interface portproxy show v4tov4
You can remove the entry with the following command:
netsh interface portproxy delete v4tov4 listenport=80 listenaddress=127.65.43.21
Links to Resources:
Using Netsh
Netsh commands for Interface IP
Netsh commands for Interface Portproxy
Windows Port Forwarding Example
The hosts file is for host name resolution only (on Windows as well as on Unix-like systems). You cannot put port numbers in there, and there is no way to do what you want with generic OS-level configuration - the browser is what selects the port to choose.
So use bookmarks or something like that.
(Some firewall/routing software might allow outbound port redirection, but that doesn't really sound like an appealing option for this.)
What you want can be achieved by modifying the hosts file through Fiddler 2 application.
Follow these steps:
Install Fiddler2
Navigate to Fiddler2 menu:- Tools > HOSTS.. (Click to select)
Add a line like this:-
localhost:8080 www.mydomainname.com
Save the file & then checkout www.mydomainname.com in browser.
Fiddler2 -> Rules -> Custom Rules
then find function OnBeforeRequest on put in the next script at the end:
if (oSession.HostnameIs("mysite.com")){
oSession.host="localhost:39901";
oSession.hostname="mysite.com";
}
The simplest way is using Ergo as your reverse proxy:
https://github.com/cristianoliveira/ergo
You set your services and its IP:PORT and ergo routes it for you :).
You can achieve the same using nginx or apache but you will need to configure them.
This doesn't give the requested result exactly, however, for what I was doing, I was not fussed with adding the port into the URL within a browser.
I added the domain name to the hosts file
127.0.0.1 example.com
Ran my HTTP server from the domain name on port 8080
php -S example.com:8080
Then accessed the website through port 8080
http://example.com:8080
Just wanted to share in case anyone else is in a similar situation.
If what is happening is that you have another server running on localhost and you want to give this new server a different local hostname like
http://teamviewer/
I think that what you are actually looking for is Virtual Hosts functionality. I use Apache so I do not know how other web daemons support this. Maybe it is called Alias. Here is the Apache documentation:
Apache Virtual Hosts examples
-You can use any free address in the network 127.0.0.0/8 , in my case needed this for python flask and this is what I have done :
add this line in the hosts file (you can find it is windows under : C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc ) :
127.0.0.5 flask.dev
Make sure the port is the default port "80" in my case this is what in the python flask: app.run("127.0.0.5","80")
now run your code and browse flask.dev
Using netsh with connectaddress=127.0.0.1 did not work for me.
Despite looking everywhere on the internet I could not find the solution which solved this for me, which was to use connectaddress=127.x.x.x (i.e. any 127. ipv4 address, just not 127.0.0.1) as this appears to link back to localhost just the same but without the restriction, so that the loopback works in netsh.
You need NGNIX or Apache HTTP server as a proxy server for forwarding http requests to appropriate application -> which listens particular port (or do it with CNAME which provides Hosting company). It is most powerful solution and this is just a really easy way to keep adding new subdomains, or to add new domains automatically when DNS records are pointed at the server.
Apache era call it Virtual host ->
httpd.apache.org/docs/trunk/vhosts/examples.html
NGINX -> Server Block
https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/topics/examples/server_blocks/
Alternate way
Install Redirector
Click Edit redirects -> Create New Redirect
I want to setup my local development machine so that any requests for *.local are redirected to localhost. The idea is that as I develop multiple sites, I can just add vhosts to Apache called site1.local, site2.local etc, and have them all resolve to localhost, while Apache serves a different site accordingly.
I am on Windows XP.
I tried adding
127.0.0.1 *.local
to my c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file, also tried:
127.0.0.1 .local
Neither of which seem to work.
I know I can set them up on different port numbers, but that is a pain since it is hard to remember which port is which.
I don't want to have to setup a local DNS server or anything hard, any suggestions?
Acrylic DNS Proxy (free, open source) does the job. It creates a proxy DNS server (on your own computer) with its own hosts file. The hosts file accepts wildcards.
Download from the offical website
http://mayakron.altervista.org/support/browse.php?path=Acrylic&name=Home
Configuring Acrylic DNS Proxy
To configure Acrylic DNS Proxy, install it from the above link then go to:
Start
Programs
Acrylic DNS Proxy
Config
Edit Custom Hosts File (AcrylicHosts.txt)
Add the folowing lines on the end of the file:
127.0.0.1 *.localhost
127.0.0.1 *.local
127.0.0.1 *.lc
Restart the Acrylic DNS Proxy service:
Start
Programs
Acrilic DNS Proxy
Config
Restart Acrylic Service
You will also need to adjust your DNS setting in you network interface settings:
Start
Control Panel
Network and Internet
Network Connections
Local Area Connection Properties
TCP/IPv4
Set "Use the following DNS server address":
Preferred DNS Server: 127.0.0.1
If you then combine this answer with jeremyasnyder's answer (using VirtualDocumentRoot) you can then automatically setup domains/virtual hosts by simply creating a directory.
To answer your question, you cannot use wildcards in the hosts file under Windows.
However, if you want to only change the hosts file to make new sites work.... you can configure your Apache like this and you don't have to keep editing it's config:
http://postpostmodern.com/instructional/a-smarter-mamp/
Basically a quick summary based on my setup, add the following to your apache.conf file:
LoadModule vhost_alias_module modules/mod_vhost_alias.so
NameVirtualHost *:80
<Directory "/xampp/sites">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes ExecCGI
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
<VirtualHost *:80>
VirtualDocumentRoot c:/xampp/sites/%-1/%-2+/
</VirtualHost>
This allows me to add an entry like:
127.0.0.1 test.dev
and then make the directory, c:\xampp\sites\dev\test and place the necessary files in there and it just works.
The other option is to use <Directory> tags in apache.conf and reference the pages from http://localhost/project/.
I don't think that it is possible.
You anyway have to modify the apache virtualroot entries every time you add a new site and location, so it's not a big work to syncronise the new name to the Windows vhost file.
Update: please check the next answer and the comments on this answer. This answer is 6 years old and not correct anymore.
To add to the great suggestions already here, XIP.IO is a fantastic wildcard DNS server that's publicly available.
myproject.127.0.0.1.xip.io -- resolves to --> 127.0.0.1
other.project.127.0.0.1.xip.io -- resolves to --> 127.0.0.1
other.machine.10.0.0.1.xip.io -- resolves to --> 10.0.0.1
(The ability to specify non-loopback addresses is fantastic for testing sites on iOS devices where you cannot access a hosts file.)
If you combine this with some of the Apache configuration mentioned in other answers, you can potentially add VirtualHosts with zero setup.
Editing the hosts file is less of a pain when you run "ipconfig /flushdns" from the windows command prompt, instead of restarting your computer.
I found a posting about Using the Windows Hosts File that also says "No wildcards are allowed."
In the past, I have just added the additional entries to the hosts file, because (as previously said), it's not that much extra work when you already are editing the apache config file.
You could talk your network administrator into setting up a domain for you (say 'evilpuppetmaster.hell') and having the wildcard there so that everything (*.evilpuppetmaster.hell') resolves to your IP
We have this working using wildcard DNS in our local DNS server: add an A record something like *.local -> 127.0.0.1
I think that your network settings will need to have the chosen domain suffix in the domain suffix search list for machines on the network, so you might want to replace .local with your company's internal domain (e.g. .int) and then add a subdomain like .localhost.int to make it clear what it's for.
So *.localhost.int would resolve to 127.0.0.1 for everybody on the network, and config file settings for all developers would "just work" if endpoints hang off that subdomain e.g. site1.localhost.int, site2.localhost.int This is pretty much the scheme we have introduced.
dnsmasq also looks nice, but I have not tried it yet:
http://ihaveabackup.net/2012/06/28/using-wildcards-in-the-hosts-file/
I have written a simple dns proxy in Python. It will read wildcard entries in /etc/hosts. See here: http://code.google.com/p/marlon-tools/source/browse/tools/dnsproxy/dnsproxy.py
I have tested in Linux & Mac OS X, but not yet in Windows.
You may try AngryHosts, which provided a way to support wildcard and regular expression. Actually, it's a hosts file enhancement and management software.
More features can be seen # http://angryhosts.com/features/
I'm using DNSChef to do that.
https://thesprawl.org/projects/dnschef/
You have to download the app, in Linux or Mac you need python to run it. Windows have their own exe.
You must create a ini file with your dns entries, for example
[A]
*.google.com=192.0.2.1
*.local=127.0.0.1
*.devServer1.com=192.0.2.3
Then you must launch the dns application with admin privileges
sudo python dnschef.py --file myfile.ini -q
or in windows
runas dnschef.exe --file myfile.ini -q
Finally you need to setup as your only DNS your local host environment (network, interface, dns or similar or in linux /etc/resolv.conf).
That's it
I made this simple tool to take the place of hosts. Regular expressions are supported.
https://github.com/stackia/DNSAgent
A sample configuration:
[
{
"Pattern": "^.*$",
"NameServer": "8.8.8.8"
},
{
"Pattern": "^(.*\\.googlevideo\\.com)|((.*\\.)?(youtube|ytimg)\\.com)$",
"Address": "203.66.168.119"
},
{
"Pattern": "^.*\\.cn$",
"NameServer": "114.114.114.114"
},
{
"Pattern": "baidu.com$",
"Address": "127.0.0.1"
}
]
#petah and Acrylic DNS Proxy is the best answer, and at the end he references the ability to do multi-site using an Apache which #jeremyasnyder describes a little further down...
... however, in our case we're testing a multi-tenant hosting system and so most domains we want to test go to the same virtualhost, while a couple others are directed elsewhere.
So in our case, you simply use regex wildcards in the ServerAlias directive, like so...
ServerAlias *.foo.local
Here is the total configuration for those trying to accomplish the goal (wildcards in dev environment ie, XAMPP -- this example assumes all sites pointing to same codebase)
hosts file (add an entry)
file: %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
127.0.0.1 example.local
httpd.conf configuration (enable vhosts)
file: \XAMPP\etc\httpd.conf
# Virtual hosts
Include etc\extra\httpd-vhosts.conf
httpd-vhosts.conf configuration
file: XAMPP\etc\extra\httpd-vhosts.conf
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin admin#example.local
DocumentRoot "\path_to_XAMPP\htdocs"
ServerName example.local
ServerAlias *.example.local
# SetEnv APP_ENVIRONMENT development
# ErrorLog "logs\example.local-error_log"
# CustomLog "logs\example.local-access_log" common
</VirtualHost>
restart apache
create pac file:
save as whatever.pac wherever you want to and then load the file in the browser's network>proxy>auto_configuration settings (reload if you alter this)
function FindProxyForURL(url, host) {
if (shExpMatch(host, "*example.local")) {
return "PROXY example.local";
}
return "DIRECT";
}
You can use echoipdns for this (https://github.com/zapty/echoipdns).
By running echoipdns local all requests for .local subdomains are redirected to 127.0.0.1, so any domain with xyz.local etc will resolve to 127.0.0.1. You can use any other suffix also just replace local with name you want.
Echoipdns is even more powerful, when you want to use your url from other machines in network you can still use it with zero configuration.
For e.g. If your machine ip address is 192.168.1.100 you could now use a domain name xyz.192-168-1-100.local which will always resolve to 192.168.1.100. This magic is done by the echoipdns by looking at the ip address in the second part of the domain name and returning the same ip address on DNS query. You will have to run the echoipdns on the machine from which you want to access the remote system.
echoipdns also can be setup as a standalone DNS proxy, so by just point to this DNS, you can now use all the above benefits without running a special command every time, and you can even use it from mobile devices.
So essentially this simplifies the wildcard domain based DNS development for local as well as team environment.
echoipdns works on Mac, Linux and Windows.
NOTE: I am author for echoipdns.
I could not find a prohibition in writing, but by convention, the Windows hosts file closely follows the UNIX hosts file, and you cannot put wildcard hostname references into that file.
If you read the man page, it says:
DESCRIPTION
The hosts file contains information regarding the known hosts on the net-
work. For each host a single line should be present with the following
information:
Internet address
Official host name
Aliases
Although it does say,
Host names may contain any printable character other than a field delim-
iter, newline, or comment character.
that is not true from a practical level.
Basically, the code that looks at the /etc/hosts file does not support a wildcard entry.
The workaround is to create all the entries in advance, maybe use a script to put a couple hundred entries at once.
While you can't add a wildcard like that, you could add the full list of sites that you need, at least for testing, that works well enough for me, in your hosts file, you just add:
127.0.0.1 site1.local
127.0.0.1 site2.local
127.0.0.1 site3.local
...
Configuration for nginx config auto subdomain with Acrylic DNS Proxy
auto.conf file for your nginx sites folder
server {
listen 80;
server_name ~^(?<branch>.*)\.example\.com;
root /var/www/html/$branch/public;
index index.html index.htm index.php;
charset utf-8;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args;
}
location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
location = /robots.txt { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
error_log /var/log/nginx/$branch.error.log error;
sendfile off;
client_max_body_size 100m;
location ~ \.php$ {
try_files $uri /index.php =404;
fastcgi_pass php-fpm:9000;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_buffers 16 16k;
fastcgi_buffer_size 32k;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
include fastcgi_params;
}
location ~ /\.ht {
deny all;
}
}
Add to Acrylic hosts file 127.0.0.1 example.com *.example.com and restart Acrylic service.
$branch - your subdomain name.
Set instead of root /var/www/html/$branch/public; your project path
This can be done using Pi-Hole, just edit the "/etc/hosts" and restart dns service.
nano /etc/hosts
pihole restartdns
Example:
127.0.1.1 raspberrypi
192.168.1.1 w1.dev.net
192.168.1.2 w2.dev.net
192.168.1.3 w3.dev.net
You can use a dynamic DNS client such as http://www.no-ip.com. Then, with an external DNS server CNAME *.mydomain.com to mydomain.no-ip.com.