Question about HOSTS and LMHOSTS files

Quick question.

Is the HOSTS file related to DNS names and the LMHOSTS file related to WINS?

Also, if I were to delete my HOSTS or LMHOSTS file, do these files automatically "recreate" themselves?

Thanks.

You're right. The HOSTS file is used to manually map friendly names on non-NetBIOS networks, the LMHOSTS file is used to map NetBIOS names.

I don't know if you can just delete them, but why would you?

They don't automatically regenerate if you delete them. By default, you don't even have an LMHOSTS file -- you just have the sample LMHOSTS.SAM. If you wanted to manually recreate the contents of Windows' default HOSTS file, you'd only need one line:

Code:

---

127.0.0.1      localhost

---

(All the other text in the default HOSTS file is comment/example.)

Thanks guys.