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Is it possible in Internet Explorer 7 to simulate HOSTS file entries with a plugin?

For example, can you tell IE to resolve all requests for xyz.com to a specific IP address?

We have some QA testers which are testing a specific URL. They cannot get administrative access to change their HOSTS file.

Is it possible in Firefox or any other browsers?

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Wouldn't you need admin priveledges to install an IE add-on anyway? I'm not sure if Ad-Blocker Plus can do what you want (I think Firefox does not need admin access for add-ons), but I am not sure as I do not use it. –  paradroid Sep 28 '10 at 23:28
If IE requires admin privs to install add-ons, then my question is invalid... –  frankadelic Sep 29 '10 at 1:21
possible duplicate of Browser with its own hosts file? –  Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Mar 13 at 14:41

3 Answers 3

Not exactly the same thing, but you could use a proxy server that redirects requests appropriately. Polipo and Squid can do that, among others.

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If you want to fool your system about dns results you need to have administrative rights in some way or another (edit hosts file, install a proxy, change network settings to use a proxy, and so on...).

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For Internet Explorer, I did not find any addon as of 2014/11/07.

For other browser, you can use HostsAdmin.

Install Chrome Extension or Firefox Addon

Then you need to grant your computer's account write permissions to file hosts like following:

Windows Vista/7 open cmd as Administrator and type following command: To Users group

cacls %windir%/system32/drivers/etc/hosts /E /G Users:W

Custom User account

cacls %windir%/system32/drivers/etc/hosts /E /G "User Account Name":W

Linux (Ubuntu Fedora ...) open terminal and type following command:

sudo chmod og+w /etc/hosts

Mac OS X
open terminal and type following command:

sudo chmod og+w /etc/hosts
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