[thelist] Question on hosts file and LAN

[Brooking, John]

Hello,

   After finally getting my local PHP installation to work with multiple
local development host names through the Windows hosts file, I've got
one more lingering problem. I've got all this installed on the same
laptop I use for my full-time corporate job. (Actually, on a VMWare
virtual machine, but I also had the problem on the base machine before I
started using the VM, so I don't think that's the problem.) When I'm
just connected to the Internet at home, without being connected to my
company LAN, it works fine. When I'm at work connected to the LAN, or at
home connected through the VPN to the company LAN, it seems that the
hosts file is not used. If I try to go to one of those local names under
those conditions, I get an error that the name cannot be resolved. At
home, if I once more disconnect the VPN (on the base machine), then the
hosts names once again resolve correctly (in the virtual machine).

   I know just enough about networking to suspect that being connected
to the LAN is probably causing my local hosts file to be superceded by
the company's domain server, but I don't know what, if anything, I can
do about it. Is there a way to refer the system to the hosts file in
addition to the domain server? Am I on the right track? Anyone else
dealt with this?

   The root site at localhost:8080 still works, so perhaps Apache has a
virtual directory sort of feature where I can map the other sites as
"directories" of the root site as an alternate way of getting to them?
Although that will likely introduce pathing problems in a variety of
places, so I'm not keen on that approach.

   Any advice appreciated.

- John

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