Question: I added an entry to my hosts file for the development of a website.

I put a new line in `/etc/hosts`

```
xx.xx.xx.xx www.mysite.com

```

But even after a reboot when I use chrome or firefox the host name is not resolved to the IP I put in the file.

I'm running Fedora 14 x86\_64.

Answer: 
Something is caching the wrong information on the way. Try `nscd -i hosts` and try again.
ALL common versions of \*NIX use a file /etc/nsswitch.conf to determine the order that files are queried in.

The line:

```
    hosts:          files dns myhostname mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] 

```

is where this is done. In many instatllions "dns" is listed ahead of "files" like this:

```
    hosts:          dns files myhostname mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] 

```

Try changing it to have "files" first like in the first example.

The change affects the system instantly. If you are running bind or some form of DNS locally, stop/restart it so that it will flush its own cache. 

We process billions of transactions daily and found that bind (as much as I love it) and no dns caching server or number of them has been able to keep up with our lookups, so we had to go to using our /etc/hosts file for some of what we do.