Originally posted by Rick Dyer:
<STRONG>I'm a Graphic Designer working on websites. My companies websites are hosted on 3, in house, UNIX servers one of which is for developement and is not open to the public domain. The Windows NT users use thieir HOSTS file to enable them see this server in their web browser to test things before they go onto the two live servers. When I enter the same settings in my Mac (G3 OS8.6) HOSTS file (in System/Preferences) I cannot browse the non-public server. Can anyone offer some tips on how to resolve this?</STRONG>
O.k. here's what you can do:
1) open up the HOSTS file on the NT boxes and copy down the IP address and port for the HTTP server. lets say it was 10.12.34.12 and the port was 80 (usual port for HTTP server but they can set it to almost any port they want to for more security)
this is what you'd type in your web browser
http://10.12.34.12:80 and you should be able to go to that website.
All the HOSTS file does is let them type a name so their computer can map it to an IP address before trying to navigate there. The private server isn't listed in their DNS, which is why they have to do it in a HOSTS file on their local machine.
2) alternatively, you can go to the box and run the web server configuration utility (whatever it is) and the software should tell you which websites are responding to what ip/port addresses.
3) You can edit your preferences:hosts file. make sure you use the correct format.
Either way, once you can geto the sites, bookmark then.
Other things:
1) the server might only respond to certain IP addresses (for more security) so it might not respond to your machines IP address. If typing in the IP address+port doesn't let you into the server then this might be the case.
2) for more security, they might be updating the hosts file on a regular basis and distributing it to the NT guys. they might, for instance, change the port numbers every week. since it's not listed in the DNS, the NT guys have to use their hosts.
3) are you on the same subnet as the NT machines? if not then your default router/gateway might not know how to route to the server, and might not be able to route to it unless someone modifies routing tables somewhere. this is probably not your case.
so basically, look at the NY guys hosts file (it's probably in c
winnt\system32\drivers\hosts.txt or something similar) and type in the ip address and port. if it doesnt' work then you might want to ask one of the network guys what the problem is.
if you're still lost then post or email raman@raman-sinha.com (these forums are so frikkin slow i could have fixed your problem by the time i was able to post!)
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