RE: Networking Guidlines

The hosts file has it's place.  What annoys me the most about the hosts
file is when people on the list say "don't forget you have to add your PC
to the hosts file."  As if it would ever stop a service from working.
Where do people get this strange idea that in order to connect with a
TN5250 client, that they have to be in the AS/400's hosts file?!

The hosts file is great when you've got a name that you'd like to quickly
override to something else in order to test some code.

Like, for example, when I'm writing a program that will talk to a
customer's server, and they haven't yet finished getting their DNS up and
running, I might put their host in my hosts file temporarily until the
customer's DNS is ready.

So, it has it's uses...  if it weren't for the misconceptions about it,
i'd have no problem with it at all.


On Wed, 31 Jul 2002, Bob Crothers wrote:
>
> Why don't I like the hosts file?  Because you have to keep every
> machine in your network updated. And if you are sophisticated enough
> (or brave enough?) to run your own SMTP, HTTP, etc servers, DNS should
> not be a problem.
>
> DNS gives you a lot of flexibility.  The hosts file gives you none.
>