title: Why is IE not resolving host names in /etc/hosts but all other browsers does
body: <p>I have multiple hosts set up in /etc/hosts file in windows machine. My issue is that I am not able to access any of the host entries in /etc/hosts file in IE browsers. But I can access the hosts in all other browsers except IE browsers. </p>
  
  <p>My host file looks like :</p>
  
  <pre><code>127.0.0.1       localhost
  127.0.0.1       apache.local.com
  127.0.0.1       iis.local.com
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>If I take <strong>apache.local.com</strong> or <strong>iis.local.com</strong> in IE browser it just loads forever but in other browsers it loads fine and take me to the wamp server localhost page.</p>
  
  <p>pinging those hosts looks ok</p>
  
  <p><strong>ping apache.local.com</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>C:\Windows\system32&gt;ping apache.local.com
  
  Pinging apache.local.com [127.0.0.1] with 32 bytes of data:
  Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time&lt;1ms TTL=128
  Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time&lt;1ms TTL=128
  Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time&lt;1ms TTL=128
  Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time&lt;1ms TTL=128
  
  Ping statistics for 127.0.0.1:
  Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
  Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
  Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>ping iis.local.com</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>C:\Windows\system32&gt;ping iis.local.com
  
  Pinging iis.local.com [127.0.0.1] with 32 bytes of data:
  Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time&lt;1ms TTL=128
  Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time&lt;1ms TTL=128
  Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time&lt;1ms TTL=128
  Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time&lt;1ms TTL=128
  
  Ping statistics for 127.0.0.1:
      Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
  Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
      Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This is looking weird because other browsers works OK but only IE does have the issue it just loads forever.</p>
  
  <p>I tried resetting the IE browser and flushed the DNS entries and rebooted the machine several time but still it does not work.</p>
  
  <p>My system is <strong>Windows8 64 bit</strong> and have <strong>wamp</strong> and <strong>IIS</strong> with PHP and MySQL extensions installed. </p>
  
  <p>Can anyone help with this?</p>