how to add ipv6 address in hosts file

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How do I add IPv6 address into System32\drivers\etc\hosts?

There is already by default, and it works (Win 7):

This also works (testing with ping):

But when I'm trying to add something non-loopback, it doesn't resolve:

So that I can do:

But can't go with hostname that I put in hosts:

Any way to add an IPv6 address to hosts in Windows?

• domain-name-system

• Is that LL address on the same network? –  Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Feb 12, 2011 at 12:29
• Yes, as you may have noticed fe80:: in it. Ping just cant find IP for realhost. –  Evgenyt Feb 12, 2011 at 12:30
• Hold on a moment. If you can't ping that ip address then fiddling about with hosts files isn't going to help you. –  Rob Moir Feb 12, 2011 at 12:34
• There's nothing stopping someone from SSHing to a remote host, reading the LL address there, and putting it in their hosts file. Except that won't work, because it's a LL address. –  Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Feb 12, 2011 at 12:37
• 1 I can ping fe80::215:afff:fec6:ea64 directly. But can't ping realhost . This is the problem. System cannot resolve realhost using hosts record. –  Evgenyt Feb 12, 2011 at 12:38

4 Answers 4

Finally, I've found the way. I speicied zone ID ( 11 in my case) in hosts:

Which I've got using

With help of http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb726995.aspx

• 1 Hey, that command... did you have to run it on the realhost machine? Asking because I got an IPv4 IP for that realhost, but we cannot connect to it and we don't even know where it's hosted. So trying to find out that %11 or similar in any other way... :S –  mickael Feb 21, 2018 at 23:57

Try like this is host file of window. Hope it can help

C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc :

• it doesn`t work –  tcma13 Mar 4, 2021 at 20:34

According to a Microsoft TechNet article from 2005/2006:

You should not place entries for link-local addresses in the Hosts file because you cannot specify the zone ID for those addresses. This concept is similar to using the Ping tool to ping a link-local destination without specifying the zone ID. Therefore, entries in the Hosts file are useful only for global or site-local IPv6 addresses.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727005.aspx

• If I put what they do 2001:db8::10:2aa:ff:fe21:5a88 tsrvv6.wcoast.example.com ts1 . It doesn't get resolved when I try to ping tsrvv6.wcoast.example.com . Does it work for you? –  Evgenyt Feb 12, 2011 at 13:58

I don't have Win7 nearby so can't test it, but I got caught by the hosts.sam file once. Windows Explorer will hide extensions by default, so I spent a day editing the "hosts" file but it was actually the hosts.sam file. Make sure you are editing the real hosts file.

And antispyware programs will block changes to the hosts file. Malware will add hosts entries to redirect bank websites to fake sites.

Adding ipv6 addresses to the hosts file does work on W2K8, I did it last week.

• The hosts.sam file is the real hosts file. You need to remove the .sam extension when you use it. The same goes for the lmhosts.sam file. –  joeqwerty Feb 12, 2011 at 14:17
• maybe on some systems. usually i've seen a hosts file and a hosts.sam file. But i'm usually fixing other people's boxes. –  jqa Feb 12, 2011 at 18:46
• 3 ".sam" is ".sample" in 8.3 dos compatible file names :-) –  MarkusSchaber Apr 24, 2018 at 6:43

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What is the proper way to display IPv6 Addresses in /etc/hosts

I've been tasked with writing a document on IPv6 for my colleagues to learn how to configure IPv6 addresses on our hosts. We primarily use RHEL6.x/7.x, ESXi, and Ubuntu Server. This only pertains to RHEL/Ubuntu.

The Argument: How should you display the IPv6 Address in /etc/hosts .

I've seen it displayed as:

Write it the same way IPv4 would be written.

2 Answers 2

The hosts file format consists of lines, each of which contains the IP address, followed by whitespace, then one or more hostnames, also separated by whitespace.

Nothing changes when the address is an IPv6 address instead of a legacy IPv4 address. The format is the same.

For example:

See also the hosts(5) man page .

• Hey Michael, I totally get this. My work uses a highly customized RHEL6.x / 7.x Image. I've been running across hosts with the IPv6 address stated in both ways above. I've never messed with IPv6 on Windows or Linux, so this is a bit new to me. I guess it would be correct to assume that; gateway_ip:last_hextet of the IPv6 address goes here (2001:db8:2::1:1000). This is what threw me off, I've never seen it this way. –  BinaryData Apr 12, 2018 at 14:12
• @BinaryData If you've seen something in some other format, then it's wrong and probably has no effect (or an undesirable effect). –  Michael Hampton Apr 12, 2018 at 16:40

IPv6 addresses have their own formatting system because they represent an 128-bit addressing space: that's 16 octets, which would be extremely unwieldly! As well, at this time there are a lot of runs of embedded zeroes, so it's handy to be able to compress those out. To indicate that octets aren't being used, a colon is used instead of a period; as well, hexadecimal digits are used instead of decimal.

An IPv6 address looks like the following:

netmask works the same as IPv4, except that it can go up to 128.

The %int is required for scoped addresses, which are not global addresses and only have meaning inside a local network, and specifies which network interface owns the address as two interfaces may have the same address.

Leading zeroes are allowed to be omitted, and a single run of zeroes in an address (the longest one, by convention) can be compressed by using :: :

2001:0db8:1523:0000:1334:0000:0000:0193 Leading zeroes removed: 2001:db8:1523:0:1334:0:0:193 Longest run of zeroes compressed: 2001:db8:1523:0:1334::193

There are some special cases:

Any address that starts completely with zeroes can be compressed to :: , then the non-zero portion ( 0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0/128 becomes ::/128 and 0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1/128 becomes ::1/128 ).

IPv4-compatible and IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses look like ::a.b.c.d/96 and ::ffff:a.b.c.d/96 (or ::ffff:aabb:ccdd/96 ).

For your /etc/hosts usage, almost nothing changes between IPv4 and IPv6 addresses: you won't have to worry about the network mask, and almost certainly won't have to worry about scoped addresses or IPv4-compatible addresses. Just follow the zero-compression rules and you should usually be fine. If you have a dual-homed address (where a host listens to both IPv4 and IPv6), you will have to enter it twice, once for the IPv4 address and once for the IPv6 address:

I won't discuss network masks and ranges, but if you want a reference to the standard ranges, RIPE produced a PDF with them if you would like a quick overview of them.

• Strictly speaking, the 2001:db8:123:456::78/64 notation combines two things: the address and the associated 2001:db8:123:456::/64 routing prefix. This notation is used, for example, when an address is added to an interface. The /64 part is not part of the address, and you can not include it when just an address is required, like in a /etc/hosts record. In the case of a remote address the routing prefix doesn't even make sense. –  Johan Myréen Apr 11, 2018 at 16:26
• ErikF, I totally get this, however I was referring more towards why the host file on several hosts were; default_ipv6_gateway:Last_hextet_of_IPv6_Address. I haven't seen this before, and I've configured thousands of hosts. I'm writing a doc using our tools at my work to show others how to handle IPv6, I'm trying to cover everything I can, and have it be accurate info. I wrote it as; IP<space>FQDN. That brings up another question; do I have to list the default_gateway. The man pages don't give it as an example. I wish I could post my works configuration, that'd make things so much easier. –  BinaryData Apr 12, 2018 at 14:20
• "default_ipv6_gateway:Last_hextet" format doesn't exist. You're confusing something here. 2001:db8::1 is just short notation for 2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001 . Likewise, 2001:db8::2:1000 is short for 2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:0000:0002:1000 . And IPv6 address doesn't contain a "gateway" part. It's just an address, like IPv4, but longer. –  TJJ Apr 20, 2022 at 18:49

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IPv6 local address in hosts file

I have set up a local domain on my Apache server.

Then I added the following line in my /etc/hosts file

After I trying to navigate to it, (I tried Firefox and Chromium) I got a server not found error.

Then I tried ping6 and it worked:

If I replace ::1 with 127.0.0.1 in my hosts file, it works fine. I'm not sure if this is relevant but this is my Virtual Host configuration in Apache2:

My question is: How can I make it work with the IPv6 address?

• apache-http-server

If you can ping it then there is nothing wrong in the hosts file and i would think its something to do with the Apache config.

• Check your Document root is correct and all the files are in correct place.
• This link here for apache shows that the IPV6 must be in square brackets.
• Any firewalls/IPtables blocking IPV6 packets?

• I changed Listen 80 to Listen *:80 it works now. That was very weird. I changed it back to Listen 80 it still works. I guess after Apache started, something must have been listening to the [::]:80 address. So Apache couldn't bind to it. –  Dan Jun 6, 2012 at 9:23
• You just had to restart it as I think it picks up new /etc/hosts upon startup. –  ek9 Mar 10, 2014 at 22:19

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How do I add an additional IPv6 address to /etc/network/interfaces?

this question How do I add an additional IP address to /etc/network/interfaces? mostly asks what i want except that i want to add more IPv6 addresses in the same interface eth0 without incrementing to eth0.1 and so on. the ifconfig command does IPv6 like ifconfig eth0 add ... so ... how can i add more IPv6 addresses to eth0 ?

• it would be nice if there was a practical way to do a whole /64 –  Skaperen May 1, 2015 at 13:22
• You can find some information about using a full /64 block on a single host here: serverfault.com/questions/590038/… –  kasperd May 3, 2015 at 15:04

4 Answers 4

It would appear (tested with ifupdown version 0.7.53.1) that we can add several iface eth0 inet6 stanzas to the interfaces file, which is more declarative than the accepted answer. The following code instructs the ifupdown suite to use stateless autoconfiguration and two additional static IPv6 addresses for the eth0 network interface:

• 5 This is the "proper" answer - for IPv6 and IPv4! –  Michael Hampton Jul 7, 2016 at 20:50
• in my case your answer did not work, but the approved one above did work. I am not sure why it might since it is a virtual machine (xen)? –  Sverre Feb 1, 2018 at 13:43
• It would be useful to know what version of ifupdown you use. Can you look into the manpage of ifconfig? –  Witiko Feb 1, 2018 at 14:31
• 1 While this works, it may not do what you want with respect to private addressing and router advertisements. See salsa.debian.org/debian/ifupdown/blob/master/inet6.defn for what actually happens. It seems like the order matters here for each of the inet6 statements. It may make sense to have a single auto declaration and then use post-up to add the addresses via ip -6 add and pre-down to remove it. –  AngerClown Jan 14, 2020 at 2:26
• 2 Props for the dead:beef and c0de:d00d . –  Markus Zeller Aug 25, 2021 at 7:38

In the question you reference, the second answer shows the equivalent solution for IPv4. In the case of IPv6, the /etc/network/interfaces file should contain something like this:

You will need the iproute2 package installed, but you should use ip instead of ifconfig anyway.

For adding a whole /64 to an interface: There are some Q&As in serverfault.se , like " Adding a whole IPv6 /64 block to an network interface on debian " or " Can I bind a (large) block of addresses to an interface? ". Maybe they can help you.

• that local block route feature works so all i need to do now is get that added so it puts it back on reboot –  Skaperen May 6, 2015 at 9:25

Here is what I did for multiple v6 addresses in interfaces file. First thing to consider is there cannot be two gateways, so you add a route below the second address.

I was puzzled, too. But you can just give as many address lines you like. And it works.

Apply without interruption with:

You can also remove addresses this way. No need for ifdown .

You can even use IPv4 addresses to improve readability. For example on ProxMox I map the IPv6 of a VM based on the internal IPv4 of the VM, which gives addresses like:

fd01:7e57::192.168.0.1/64 provided your IPv6 prefix is /64 .

fd12:3456:789a in the example above is from the private IPv6 area fd00::/8 , which is similar to a private net on IPv4 like 10.0.0.0/8 . Replace 12:3456:789a with 40 random bits. This leaves 16 bits for subnets to form a /64 (in IPv6, networks cannot go beyond /64 , so this should always be the biggest address mask you can see on properly IPv6 enabled networks).

RIPE even writes:

Assigning prefixes longer than /56 is strongly discouraged, so your choices are: If you want a simple addressing plan use a /48 for each end-user

• "Official" (static) allocations from your ISP should give you a /48.
• Dynamic allocations (from the ISP to your router), usually give you a /56.
• And internally on our network, you use a /64, so you can split up the /56 into 256 distinct networks for your own needs.

If you see a /64 on your router this does not mean, your ISP is nuts. Many routers default to /64 if not configured otherwise. Usually all ISPs allow routers to request a /56.

So on the other side (Server) you can safely assume, that all IPs which use the same prefix according to /56 come from the same network.

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How-To Geek

How to edit the hosts file on windows 10 or 11.

The hosts file can be used to block access to specific websites.

Quick Links

What does the hosts file do, the windows hosts file location, how to edit the windows hosts file, if you can still connect to blocked addresses.

The hosts file is the first place Windows checks when connecting to a website. You can edit it manually to block access to specific websites. Find out what and where it is, and how to edit it.

When you type in a regular web address to access a website, like google.com, your PC doesn't automatically know how to connect. It needs the correct IP address associated with the web address in order to make a connection.

The hosts file is the first place your PC will check to find an IP address for a website, but by default, the hosts file doesn't contain any. If your PC can't find an IP address in the hosts file, it checks the DNS cache or connects to a DNS server . When a web address and an IP are inserted into the hosts file, it will provide that information to your computer any time you try to connect to that web address.

If the hosts file tells your computer to find a web address at an IP address that won't connect --- like 0.0.0.0 --- it blocks access to the website.

The hosts file is located in "C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc" on both Windows 10 and 11. You need administrative permissions to edit it, which means that you can't just open it in a normal Notepad window.

You can edit the hosts file with any text editor. There are a variety available, but both Windows 10 and 11 come with Notepad.  Avoid using a word processor --- the differences between Notepad and a word processor like Wordpad can sometimes cause problems.

Related: What's the Difference Between Notepad and WordPad in Windows?

You'll need to run Notepad as administrator to edit the hosts file. To do this on Windows 10, click the start button, type "notepad" into the search bar, and then on the right, click "Run as administrator."

Running Notepad on Windows 11 is the same process as Windows 10, except "Run as administrator" is not displayed immediately. Click on the start button, and then type "Notepad" into the search bar. On the right-hand side, click the small downward-facing arrow to reveal more options.

Then click "Run as administrator."

Once Notepad is open, click on File > Open, and navigate to "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc"

Notepad is set to look for ".txt" files by default, so you'll need to set it to look for "All Files" in the drop down menu instead. Then, click the hosts file and hit open.

Once the hosts file is open, you can start adding lines to block websites. The lines that go into the hosts file can be broken up into three basic components, each separated by at least one space.

• The IP Address - This tells your PC where to look for a website.
• The Web Address - This is the website address you want to block.
• The Comment - Where you describe what the line does. The comment must have a hashtag preceding it.

It isn't necessary to include the comment for the hosts file to work, but commenting files when you edit them is an excellent habit.

Once you're done adding lines, click File > Save to save your changes. There shouldn't be a popup after you click save. If there is, it means Notepad does not have administrative access, and that you need to close Notepad and run it as administrator. Once you've saved successfully, go ahead and exit Notepad.

There are two addresses, 127.0.0.1 and 0.0.0.0, that are commonly used in the hosts file to block traffic. There are significant differences between 127.0.0.1 and 0.0.0.0 , but in most cases either will work. Rarely, a program running on your PC might have problems if you use 127.0.0.1, so it is best to stick with 0.0.0.0.

Recent versions of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge all use DNS over HTTPS (DoH) by default. DNS over HTTPS works the same way as a regular DNS server, however DNS over HTTPS encrypts your queries to boost your privacy . Encrypting your queries means that third parties can't tell what requests you've sent to a DNS server, or how the server responds.

Related: How DNS Over HTTPS (DoH) Will Boost Privacy Online

When DNS over HTTPS is enabled in a browser, the browser bypasses the normal DNS client in Windows 10 and 11. That means the browser ignores the hosts file entirely and uses a secured DNS server specified by the browser instead, so any addresses you attempt to block using the hosts file will be accessible. If you want to use the hosts file to block web browser traffic, you'll need to disable DNS over HTTPS in your browser.

Fortunately, you can enable DNS over HTTPS on Windows 11 . That will allow you to use the hosts file to block addresses while maintaining the advantages of DNS over HTTPS.

Related: How to Enable DNS Over HTTPS on Windows 11