How to Edit Hosts file in Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks

The hosts file is used by your computer to map hostnames to IP addresses.

 

By adding or removing lines to your hosts file you can change where certain domains will point when you access them in a browser or using other software. You can block certain hosts names, like ad-serving/malicious hosts, or used for web development purposes, i.e. to redirect domains to local addresses.

This is an important file and one that is under the computer administrator’s control, so you’ll need an account with full privileges to make any changes.



Making a backup of the hosts file can be a good idea if you plan on making significant changes or just want to play around with modifications and see what happens.

Step 1: Launch Terminal, found in /Applications/Utilities/ or launched through Spotlight
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