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ZZ9
Asked: 2016-03-23 02:31:55 +0800 CST

Do web browsers check the hosts file before refering to their DNS cache?

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On a client machine such as OSX or Windows:

Do web browsers check the hosts file before refering to their DNS cache?

I am trying to figure out the full DNS 'route' in my mind.

  • Hosts File
  • Browser DNS Cache
  • Local DNS Cache
  • DNS Server
  • Root Hints or Forwarding

Does it differ between browsers and OSs?

domain-name-system

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Browsers generally do not do anything except asking the IP library of the operating system to resolve a host name. So the normal behavior of ANY IP based program applies.

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  2. If you are on UNIX systems like me on Debian, the first thing which is checked is the /etc/hosts file.

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  3. On a Windows machine, hosts file entries are loaded into the DNS cache.

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