277718 - Can not resolve URL from host file

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(Core :: Networking, defect)

Description

[fabio]

If you have a entry in the Windows host file like below.

WINNT\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

192.168.1.2	remote_server

If you type the URL "remote_server" in the address input box, Firefox cannot
resolve the URL. It will still go through the DNS, while IE can locate the site
192.168.1.2 directly.

Comment 1

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Are you sure that you restarted Firefox after making the change? Firefox will
keep a cache of the resolved name, and it does not actually read the hosts file
but just asks the OS to resolve the name. See bug 265636.

Comment 2

[areid]

I have encountered a similar situation, where FF would not resolve an entry from
my hosts file, but go out looking for it using a DNS search, which would fail
since the target is not in any DNS system. All other applications (IE, Telnet,
ping, etc.) would resolve the name without problem. I found that the problem was
caused by a blank link in my hosts file before the entry I was trying to
resolve. Blank lines are allowed by the standard, but FF seems to interpret them
as end-of-file, since FF would not resolve any entries placed after a blank line.

Comment 3

[Josh Birnbaum]

Are you using a proxy?

Firefox does not parse the hosts file, that's up to Windows.  But if you're
using a proxy, the local machine is not performing the DNS lookups.

Comment 4

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
Firefox:     http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releases/1.5beta1.html
Seamonkey:   http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Comment 5

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.