hosts file in windows and my developer

Question

One of my sites - mediadeals.co.uk is showing a blank page.

So I went back to my developer. He asked me to add this on my hosts file in windows->system32->drivers->etc->hosts

74.86.205.232 mediadeals.co.uk

After doing this the site started working. What does this mean?

Answer 1

Thats crazy. All he did was make it work on YOUR machine. The hosts file simply maps names to IP addresses. Its like a local DNS. What needs to happen for the outside world to see this the DNS servers that are authoritative for mediadeals.co.uk need to have an A record pointing to 74.86.205.232.

Answer 2

How long ago did you register that site name? Don't forget that DNS entries may take a while to propagate across the web. 24 hrs+ sometimes.

And btw, that "fix" will ONLY work on your machine. It maps the friendly URL to an IP address for you, not for the world.

Answer 3

The reason its not working is there is no DNS record for it.

The hosts file is allowing you to point via a local DNS replacement.

All you need is to get the site hosted somewhere and a DNS entry setup.

If you like the site and he is willing to host for $150 then go for it, depending on your contract, if he should have done in the initial budget then you should question this.

RE