The LMHOSTS (
LAN Manager
LAN Manager is a discontinued network operating system (NOS) available from multiple vendors and developed by Microsoft in cooperation with 3Com Corporation. It was designed to succeed 3Com's 3+Share network server software which ran atop a heavi ...
Hosts) file is used to enable
Domain Name Resolution
In computer systems, name resolution refers to the retrieval of the underlying numeric values corresponding to computer hostnames, account user names, group names, and other named entities.
Computer operating systems commonly employ multiple key ...
under Windows when other methods, such as
WINS, fail. It is used in conjunction with
workgroups and
domains. If you are looking for a simple, general mechanism for the local specification of IP addresses for specific hostnames (server names), use the
HOSTS file
The computer file hosts is an operating system file that maps hostnames to IP addresses. It is a plain text file. Originally a file named HOSTS.TXT was manually maintained and made available via file sharing by Stanford Research Institute for the ...
, not the LMHOSTS file.
The file, if it exists, is read as the LMHOSTS setting file. A sample file () is provided. It contains documentation for manually configuring the file.
File locations
Windows 95, 98, Millennium Edition
: The file is located in , and a sample file () is installed here. Note that is an
environment variable
An environment variable is a dynamic-named value that can affect the way running processes will behave on a computer. They are part of the environment in which a process runs. For example, a running process can query the value of the TEMP env ...
pointing to the Windows installation directory, usually .
Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2016+
: The file is located in , and a sample file () is installed here. Note that is an
environment variable
An environment variable is a dynamic-named value that can affect the way running processes will behave on a computer. They are part of the environment in which a process runs. For example, a running process can query the value of the TEMP env ...
pointing to the Windows installation directory, usually .
See also
*
HOSTS file
The computer file hosts is an operating system file that maps hostnames to IP addresses. It is a plain text file. Originally a file named HOSTS.TXT was manually maintained and made available via file sharing by Stanford Research Institute for the ...
*
NetBIOS
NetBIOS () is an acronym for Network Basic Input/Output System. It provides services related to the session layer of the OSI model allowing applications on separate computers to communicate over a local area network. As strictly an API, NetB ...
External links
Domain Browsing with TCP/IP and LMHOSTS FilesLMHOSTS File Information and Predefined Keywords
Microsoft knowledgebase article
Using LMHOSTS Files on Windows NT
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lmhosts
Windows communication and services
Configuration files