I used the hosts file extensively in Vista. I have 6 or so systems that I keep mapped, and I also get the no-spam type hosts file and append that, so my hosts file was huge in vista, and it was reliable. In windows 7, though, I can't even quite place exactly what it's doing. It has reverted or otherwise lost my changes no less than 8-10 times, but I was having other problems, so I did a clean reinstall, and now it has done it to me another 4-5 times. It seems that sometimes it actually deletes the file, because I go to edit it, and notepad asks if I want to create the file. This most recent time, it reverted to bone stock with the comments section and then the ipv4 localhost and ipv6 localhost. I use a .bat file that calls notepad c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts, and I put a shortcut to the .bat in my start menu, so I hit start, type hosts, "hosts.bat" comes up at the top of the list, hit the properties button, hit A (run as administrator), hit Y (yes). I've done it this way in Vista and Server 08 for years with no problem, but Win7 just isn't having it. I just added my main server back to my hosts file while typing this, and it is still there, but I bet by tomorrow it will be gone, maybe the whole file.