Do you hate having to type google.com into your browser every time you need to go Google? Would you rather type something like g and have it go to Google? Good news, you can. There is a system file that deals with re-routing your internet traffic. It’s called the hosts file.

These instructions are specifically for Windows XP and up. This works on Mac and Linux, but the host file is in a different place.

To get started you need the IP Address of the server you want to make a shortcut to. You can do this by running a ping command. Go to Start then Run, when the Run Dialog comes up type in “cmd”. The command line will come up. Type in “ping url” replacing url with the domain name of the site you want. Something like this will come up:

Pinging google.com [74.125.53.100] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 74.125.53.100: bytes=32 time=83ms TTL=48
Reply from 74.125.53.100: bytes=32 time=83ms TTL=48
Reply from 74.125.53.100: bytes=32 time=83ms TTL=48
Reply from 74.125.53.100: bytes=32 time=83ms TTL=48

Ping statistics for 74.125.53.100:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 83ms, Maximum = 83ms, Average = 83ms

The bold is the IP Address, remember this, as you need it to edit the hosts file.

The next step is to modify the hosts file. This is located at C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. The easiest way to edit is by typing C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts in the Run Dialog. An open with file will come up, choose to open with Notepad. At the end of the hosts file there should be this line:

127.0.0.1 localhost

Now we get to add some shortcuts. It’s very easy to do, one a new line, enter the IP Address you want to go to then a space or tab and what you want to type in to go there. So for example:

74.125.53.100 g

Now when you type “g” into your browser, it should take you to Google’s homepage.

You can do this with any IP address. You can also have fun with someone and make a web site point somewhere else. I pulled this on my brother by making runescape.com point to a web page I made that said his account had been canceled.

Have fun with this one.