Editing the Host file & renewing an IP address

Editing the host file

One of our labs today was to edit the Host file. Since we have to use an IP address to get to our blackboard, the named url will not work, when we use the class room computers. Our teacher wanted us to edit our host file so that we could use a simple word to get to blackboard without having to type the IP each time.

When using vista the first thing you need to do is open notepad as an administrator…see image below.

Now we need to find the host file it is ///System32/drivers/etc ..see image below..

Now I had to insert the target IP (the one we used for black board) with a space then the name I wanted to use to represent that IP, I used “myblackbord.” …see image below.

Now save the file, if you can’t it because you didn’t open notepad as an administrator. Now open your web browser and type the word you used and watch you page load up.

Release/Renew an IP

The next lab was to release and renew our IP address. Again for this to work you need to open command prompt as an admin; just like you did for notepad. Once you have command prompt open type ipconfig/release..see image below.

For the last step you need to renew you IP address so type ipconfig/renew…see image below.