/etc/hosts not working

[Sahil Tandon]

David Naylor <naylor.b.david at gmail.com> wrote:

> I am trying to redirect a URL request to a different address but it 
> appears that /etc/hosts is not doing the job.  Example:
> 
> 127.0.0.1  google.com
> 
> The way I understand it is that by typing google.com in a web browser 
> it should result in the local page being displayed.  It instead goes 
> to the proper Google page.  

Which browser?  Works fine here; might be a browser cache issue.
                                                        
> `ping google.com' actually pings 127.0.0.1 but `host google' returns 
> the actual IP addresses for google.  

This means both ping and host are working as designed.

-- 
Sahil Tandon <sahil at tandon.net>