Using port number in Windows host file

Question

After installing TeamViewer, I have changed the wampserver port to 8080, so the address is http://localhost:8080.

For the host file located at C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\, I have also made the change as below

BEFORE
127.0.0.1 www.example.com

AFTER
127.0.0.1:8080 www.example.com

When I access www.example.com, it doesn't redirect to my wampserver, how can I fix it?

Answer 1

I managed to achieve this by using Windows included Networking tool netsh.

As Mat points out : The hosts file is for host name resolution only, so a combination of the two did the trick for me.

Example

---

Overview

example.app:80
 |                           <--Link by Hosts File
 +--> 127.65.43.21:80
       |                     <--Link by netsh Utility
       +--> localhost:8081

Actions

• Started my server on localhost:8081
• Added my "local DNS" in the hosts file as a new line
  • 127.65.43.21 example.app
    • Any free address in the network 127.0.0.0/8 (127.x.x.x) can be used.
    • Note: I am assuming 127.65.43.21:80 is not occupied by another service.
    • You can check with netstat -a -n -p TCP | grep "LISTENING"
• added the following network configuration with netsh command utility
  • netsh interface portproxy add v4tov4 listenport=80 listenaddress=127.65.43.21 connectport=8081 connectaddress=127.0.0.1
• I can now access the server at http://example.app

Notes:
- These commands/file modifications need to be executed with Admin rights

- netsh portproxy needs ipv6 libraries even only to use v4tov4, typically they will also be included by default, otherwise install them using the following command: netsh interface ipv6 install

---

You can see the entry you have added with the command:

netsh interface portproxy show v4tov4

You can remove the entry with the following command:

netsh interface portproxy delete v4tov4 listenport=80 listenaddress=127.65.43.21

---

Links to Resources:

• Using Netsh
• Netsh commands for Interface IP
• Netsh commands for Interface Portproxy
• Windows Port Forwarding Example

Answer 2

The hosts file is for host name resolution only (on Windows as well as on Unix-like systems). You cannot put port numbers in there, and there is no way to do what you want with generic OS-level configuration - the browser is what selects the port to choose.

So use bookmarks or something like that.
(Some firewall/routing software might allow outbound port redirection, but that doesn't really sound like an appealing option for this.)

Answer 3

What you want can be achieved by modifying the hosts file through Fiddler 2 application.

Follow these steps:

1. Install Fiddler2

2. Navigate to Fiddler2 menu:- Tools > HOSTS.. (Click to select)

3. Add a line like this:-

   localhost:8080 www.mydomainname.com

4. Save the file & then checkout www.mydomainname.com in browser.

Answer 4

Fiddler2 -> Rules -> Custom Rules

then find function OnBeforeRequest on put in the next script at the end:

if (oSession.HostnameIs("mysite.com")){
    oSession.host="localhost:39901";
    oSession.hostname="mysite.com";
}

Answer 5

The simplest way is using Ergo as your reverse proxy: https://github.com/cristianoliveira/ergo

You set your services and its IP:PORT and ergo routes it for you :).

You can achieve the same using nginx or apache but you will need to configure them.

Answer 6

This doesn't give the requested result exactly, however, for what I was doing, I was not fussed with adding the port into the URL within a browser.

I added the domain name to the hosts file

127.0.0.1      example.com

Ran my HTTP server from the domain name on port 8080

php -S example.com:8080

Then accessed the website through port 8080

http://example.com:8080

Just wanted to share in case anyone else is in a similar situation.

Answer 7

Using netsh with connectaddress=127.0.0.1 did not work for me.

Despite looking everywhere on the internet I could not find the solution which solved this for me, which was to use connectaddress=127.x.x.x (i.e. any 127. ipv4 address, just not 127.0.0.1) as this appears to link back to localhost just the same but without the restriction, so that the loopback works in netsh.

Answer 8

1. Install Redirector
2. Click Edit redirects -> Create New Redirect

Answer 9

If what is happening is that you have another server running on localhost and you want to give this new server a different local hostname like http://teamviewer/

I think that what you are actually looking for is Virtual Hosts functionality. I use Apache so I do not know how other web daemons support this. Maybe it is called Alias. Here is the Apache documentation:

Apache Virtual Hosts examples

Answer 10

-You can use any free address in the network 127.0.0.0/8 , in my case needed this for python flask and this is what I have done : add this line in the hosts file (you can find it is windows under : C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc ) :

127.0.0.5 flask.dev

• Make sure the port is the default port "80" in my case this is what in the python flask: app.run("127.0.0.5","80")

• now run your code and browse flask.dev

Answer 11

You need NGNIX or Apache HTTP server as a proxy server for forwarding http requests to appropriate application -> which listens particular port (or do it with CNAME which provides Hosting company). It is most powerful solution and this is just a really easy way to keep adding new subdomains, or to add new domains automatically when DNS records are pointed at the server.

• Apache era call it Virtual host -> httpd.apache.org/docs/trunk/vhosts/examples.html

• NGINX -> Server Block https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/topics/examples/server_blocks/