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Creating new domain names (for personal use)
Did you know that you can easily create your own domain names for your personal use on your computer? The method we're going to describe could come in handy many ways:
  • You can map your current home page domain name (at your internet service provider's server) to use your own domain name such as MyCompanyName.com; for fun, or to help you test your HTML pages with your own domain name.
  • On a local network (or an intranet) you can use your own domain names to access local and remote resources (web servers, etc.)
  • You can create shorter and easier to remember domain names (or aliases) for already existing domain names.
  • If your DNS server is slow, you can speedup the access to certain domain names a bit.

Here's how to...

  • Locate or create a file named HOSTS
    If you're using Windows 95, this file should be in the Windows directory ("C:\WINDOWS" for example).
    If you're using Windows NT, HOSTS file should be in the "%SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc" directory ("C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc" for example).
  • Use your favorite text editor (Notepad for example) to add entries to the HOSTS file. All entries to the HOSTS file should be in the following format:

    <IP Address> <English or friendly name>

    For example, let's say you want to create a domain name [alias] for a known domain name -- "    www.acky.net" for example. First, find out the IP address of the "known" (or already existing domain name) by typing the following command at the "DOS or Command Prompt:"

    PING <known domain name>

    or according to our example:

    PING www.acky.net

    Record the IP address for that domain --     206.105.42.1 for example.

    Now, decide what your new domain name for     www.acky.net should be -- let's say you want to call it "tipssite.com" (something easier to remember).

    All you have to do to map     tipssite.com to www.acky.net is to add the following line to your HOSTS file:

    206.105.42.1 tipssite.com

    Now you can access     www.acky.net by using tipssite.com instead -- http://tipssite.com/ for example.