I should write little explanation.
Like it's said on the link above:
"...then Windows checks the Hosts file before it queries any DNS servers, which enables it to override addresses in the DNS".
Computers does not communicate via addresses like "www.google.com". They communicate via their IPs.
When you enter address in your address bar in browser your computer first contacts DNS server of your provider, which translates textual address to numbers.
For example, if you write "www.google.com" it is actually "209.85.227.105".
But, before everything, your computer checks it's internal DNS database, which is contained in hosts file.
If it finds mach, there is no need to contact DNS, we are goind straight to whatever we are looking for.
Try it for your self. Enter any IP of any domain in adress bar.
Try 209.85.227.105 or 207.46.197.32
Example:
This line is from hosts file
127.0.0.1 track.acclaimnetwork.com
This means that if you (or your browser) tries to connect on track.acclaimnetwork.com host, it will be redirected to your localhost. Because you dont have any webserver installed (99% of you), it will display message "page not found" instead of add ot any other content from that host.
Hosts file can be used to speed up access to some web sites, or, for example, if you want to use specific Google server, or whatever....
