The iPhone couldn't be restored. An unknown error occurred (3194) I have an iPhone 6 iOS 8.0. And I want to restore it. So I downloaded the iOS 8 firmware for iPhone 6 from this link then I opened itunes and pressed shift+click on restore button and then chose my downloaded ios 8.0 firmware, but I get the below error message:

The iPhone couldn't be restored. An unknown error occurred (3194)


I searched the internet and some people suggested modifying the hosts file found in this location C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc by removing or commenting the apple.gs lines. But I still get the error. So if anyone could please advise how to restore to the currently installed iOS 8.0 without updating.

Hosts file contents:

# Copyright (c) 1993-2006 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host

# localhost name resolution is handle within DNS itself.
#       127.0.0.1       localhost
#       ::1             localhost
#74.208.10.249 gs.apple.com
#127.0.0.1 gs.apple.com
(Just so this question has an answer...)

Apple is no longer signing iOS v8.0.0 installations. You will need to restore to (as of this writing) 8.1.3 which is the latest version available. The HOSTS file settings are to ensure that iTunes can talk to the update server, which isn't the issue in your case.

You are basically attempting to downgrade the software on your iPhone (since the restore process installs the newest version, and you want to restore but then go back to iOS 8.0). You cannot downgrade iOS unless Apple is still signing the previous version, which usually only occurs for a very small window after a new update is released.