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[Albert Richheimer]

One more thank to you Albert!

The thanks are deserved by Carlo Pagani for finding the proper IP address of the PB forum! I already have thought of using my personal DNS aka hosts file for getting access, but I didn't know the proper IP of the forum.

The concept of hosts is quite nifty. Before the external DNS servers are addressed, hosts is consulted first by the operating system whether there is a matching entry. So the minimal hosts file (out of the box) consists of just one single entry:

Code:

127.0.0.1 localhost

I am using hosts for redirecting our inhouse work stations to our own news- and e-mail server called Hamster. So I don't need to open the POP- and SMTP-ports at the firewall to the public. The entries at hosts simply point to the fixed IP of the virtual server where Hamster is installed, e.g.

Code:

192.168.1.72 pop.richheimer.de
192.168.1.72 smtp.richheimer.de

Hosts also allows to block access to dangerous and unwanted sites. Here is a lot of information on this concept: Blocking Unwanted Connections with a Hosts File.