Windows operating system has a Hosts file which can help resolve Names to IP addresses. This is really helpful in an internal enviornment where you want to resolve your machine and server name to ip addresses in absence of DNS.

The Windows hosts file on Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows NT can be found at :

C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc

Where as in Windows 98 and Windows 95, it is located at C:\Windows folder

When enabled, the host file takes precedence over other name resolution methods in Windows. You can use a simple application such as NotePad to modify the hosts file. Please note that if you are trying to modify this in Windows Vista or Windows Seven, you will need to launch NotePad as an administrator (shift + right click on NotePad in Start Menu and choose, run as administrator). If you do not do a "run as" on Notepad, you will get an access denied message when trying to modify the hosts file.