Why are we supposed to edit the Hosts file?

[metehan]

I am running a PUBLIC private server fine, and didn't even touch my hosts file. What am I doing wrong?

[waymirec]

The only reason to edit your hosts file is to change name resolution on your pc. So for example if you have a server running that is advertising a realm by a dyndns name that resolves to an external ip which is port-forwarded by your router to your privately addressed server, you can edit your hosts file so that your pc resolves the dyndns name (locally) as the private address that way you can connect to it on your local LAN. Without editing the hosts entry when you tried to connect to the realm by dyndns name it would resolve to the external ip and attempt to connect to it via the Internet which wont work.

[metehan]

Uhh no. People are playing on my server now.

[waymirec]

ok. and...?

[volitle]

you dont have to i never did, its just another way of reducing lag i think and making your computer more open, please correct me if im wrong

[waymirec]

The ONLY purpose the hosts file has is to provide a manual method for performing specific DNS Name to I.P. Address resolution mapping. Whenever you try to resolve a name (i.e. Google) the computer will check the hosts file for a matching entry before it performs a query to its DNS server. So if you need your computer to resolve a name to a different IP then it resolves to in DNS you can use the hosts file to achieve this.