From: John Beckett 

"David Blair"  wrote in message
news::
> Somehow, having the URL in my HOSTS table as usual isn't working.

I guess you're just speaking loosely, and you've put the host name in the
HOSTS file? First step is to see if you have made a typo. Copy the host
name from the URL, then go to a command prompt window and type
ping
then right-click the command prompt window to paste the host name. Press
Enter to see if your computer trys to ping the IP that you have in HOSTS
(you don't care if the pings work or not, you just want to see what IP it
uses).

Another simple test is to change the IP in your HOSTS and repeat the above
(you might need 'ipconfig /flushdns' first). This should at least prove
that your HOSTS is working.

If you are being sent to an IP address, you could try fiddling with your
routing table. I haven't seen the effect on a browser, but it should work.
Say the site is 11.22.33.44. You could run the following at command prompt:

route add 11.22.33.44 mask 255.255.255.255 127.0.01

If this works, it will last until next boot. Put -p after 'route' to make
the command persistent.

John

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