hosts file and NTL

[claxer]

I have been given a domain name along with an IP address that is to be inserted into my hosts file within my System32/Drivers/etc dir. The reason is for me to view my website home page on a different server.

www.example.com Original Domain
example.com new domain with an IP address in the hosts file.

I have entered the IP address and its related domain name into the hosts file and have tested this using a BT connection †“ this works fine. My web browser redirects me to the new server home page as expected.

However when I try the very same using my NTL connection, it doesnââ‚ƚ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t work. It redirects me to the original domain.

I suspected there was an issue with NTL and contacted their Tech Support. They couldnââ‚Ã⠀šÃ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t give me a solid explanation and suggested that the reason maybe because of NTL supplying a non-fixed IP Address.

Has anyone experienced a similar problem? If so, how did you resolve it?

Many thanks

Steve

[MovedGoalPosts]

Moving to email, Web Proxy & webspace discussion
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to Cable Forum

I'm not quite clear on what you are trying to do here? Are you hosting a website on your home PC, or is it that you cannot connect to a website hosted somewhere else on the internet?
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If you are trying to host at home, then yes the IP address of your connection is dynamic. Try setting up a redirection through somewhere like www.no-ip.com

[claxer]

Ho Rob
thanks for your reply!

My Main website is hosted in USA. And I use www.buyitinwales.com to access it as normal. I have a different hosting company who has made a duplicate of my home page. To access this particular page (from MY pc only) I have been given an IP address and the following domain neme: buyitinwales.com (without the www) an inserted this into my hosts file.
As I mentioned earlier this works fine on a BT connection. It redirects me to the new hosting area as expected. When using NTL it continues to direct me to the normal area.

Thanks again

Steve

[MovedGoalPosts]

In which case I'd suspect an ntl proxy issue. ntl aren't seeing a difference in the IP names of the two sites. Don't know how you would get round that.

You are sure your PC isn't caching any data - force a refresh (Ctrl-F5 using IE)?

You can't do it on ntl, simple as that.

Requests for a domain are intecepted by the proxy - which does it's own dns lookup on the domain, so what's in your hosts file is irrelevnt, ignored. You could create a hosts file pointing every domain at 1.2.3.4 and web browsing would still work ......

* This only applies to http / port 80 requests. It will work as expected for https, or http on ports other than 80.

Eh! How come pointing ad (and porn) domain names at 127.0.0.1 works (i.e. blocks access) then?

[SMHarman]

Because that is happening on your internal network, if you sent the request out on port 80 then it would be served correctly.

Originally Posted by JohnHorb

Eh! How come pointing ad (and porn) domain names at 127.0.0.1 works (i.e. blocks access) then?

Because, as smharman says, 127.0.0.1 is your local loopback address, it never leaves your pc.

[claxer]

Ok... Would it be fair to say that there is NO solution for my little problem?
Is there not a workaround or something?

Cheers

Steve

Originally Posted by Paul M

Because, as smharman says, 127.0.0.1 is your local loopback address, it never leaves your pc.

Sorry to labour this, but I'm genuinely intrigued. I thought the domain name, if in the hosts file, was resolved to an IP address BEFORE any DNS look-up, so the request leaving the PC would be for the OP's new IP. I'm obviously missing something, but I don't understand where NTL's proxies come into it.

Have a read of this ;

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/article.php?a=14

Ah! #4 under transparent proxy. Thanks Paul.