Comments on: Attack the Man Behind the Curtain http://qahatesyou.com/wordpress/2008/02/attack-the-man-behind-the-curtain/ You suspected it. Now you know it. Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:05:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: gimlet http://qahatesyou.com/wordpress/2008/02/attack-the-man-behind-the-curtain/comment-page-1/#comment-47 gimlet Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:37:08 +0000 http://qahatesyou.com/wordpress/2008/02/14/attack-the-man-behind-the-curtain/#comment-47 Good post. Just thought I'd add a few specifics for those developers whose heads aren't spinning from the concept of the load balancer. Using a hosts file is an important testing tool, particularly if your webserver or app responds with the load-balanced URL (ie, www.mywebsite.com). I've seen too many developers go directly to a particular server, get redirected to the load-balanced URL, and not understand why things don't work the way they expected them to. This can cause a flurry of angry, sophomoric Twitter updates. So, kids, here's where your hosts file is: In Windows, the path to the hosts file is typically: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts For Linux and other Unix systems: /etc/hosts For OS X: /private/etc/hosts Good post. Just thought I’d add a few specifics for those developers whose heads aren’t spinning from the concept of the load balancer.

Using a hosts file is an important testing tool, particularly if your webserver or app responds with the load-balanced URL (ie, http://www.mywebsite.com). I’ve seen too many developers go directly to a particular server, get redirected to the load-balanced URL, and not understand why things don’t work the way they expected them to. This can cause a flurry of angry, sophomoric Twitter updates.

So, kids, here’s where your hosts file is:

In Windows, the path to the hosts file is typically:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

For Linux and other Unix systems:

/etc/hosts

For OS X:

/private/etc/hosts

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