hosts file
termnetworking
A local text file mapping names to addresses, consulted before DNS - and originally the single file that named every machine on the internet.
HOSTS.TXT was maintained centrally at SRI and downloaded by every host, which worked while the network was small and stopped working when it was not: one file, one editor, one distribution, growing daily. DNS exists because that arrangement could not scale. The file never went away, though: every operating system still checks a local hosts file first, which makes it the quickest way to redirect a name on one machine - useful for testing, and equally useful to malware, which is why endpoint tools watch it.
Also known as: HOSTS.TXT, host table