The Linux Page

MS-Windows Network

If you were wondering how to make MS-Windows know about your Intranet computers, let me tell you, it's very simple, you just have to add the address(es) to your hosts file. Am I kidding?! Yeah! Right! Have a look for yourself, on NT and Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, etc. you have a "network driver"1 here:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc	

Note that since Vista, the file is protected. So to be able to edit it, you need to start your favorite editor (gVim, right?) as Administrator. This is done by right cliking on your application (yes, that's why I keep an icon to start gVim on my desktop, have fun!) then select that menu entry on your software. You should be able to do that right clicking in your menu as well. Once you have that editor open, search for the file, open, make your changes and then save it back.

  • 1. For your information, the network stack comes from FreeBSD. That additional module you bought for $100+ for MS-DOS and then MS-Windows 1.0 to 3.1... was free software.