HOSTS Converter

Extract text from IP mapping files (HOSTS)


Drop or upload your .HOSTS file
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How to extract text from your HOSTS file

  1. Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your HOSTS file.
  2. You’ll see a preview, if available.
  3. Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.

Convert HOSTS to another file type

To convert HOSTS IP mappings to another format, you need Notepad or other System software.

Convert a file to HOSTS

To convert other file formats to the "Network Configuration File" file type, you need software like Notepad or a similar tool.


About HOSTS files

The .hosts file is a plain text system file that maps human-readable hostnames to numerical IP addresses. Before the Domain Name System (DNS) became standard, this file was the primary method for resolving network nodes. Today, network administrators and power users use it to override DNS settings, block malicious websites via sinkholing, or test local development servers. You can open and edit these files with basic text editors like Notepad on Windows, or GNU nano and Vim on Unix-based systems. However, working directly with .hosts files has significant disadvantages. The format is strictly plain text with no built-in validation. A single misplaced space or missing # comment character can break your local network access. Additionally, operating systems lock this file down tightly, requiring Administrator or root privileges to save changes. Large ad-blocking .hosts files easily exceed 10MB, causing basic text editors to freeze or crash when searching for a specific IP address. To safely share, analyze, or archive these network mappings, you need to convert the file. For easy sharing and viewing without triggering OS security alerts, convert to TXT. For programmatic analysis, deduplication, or importing into database tools, convert to CSV or JSON. Drop your file here to analyze and convert it - free, online, and without installing software.

Convert.Guru analyzes your HOSTS file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.

Users also converted BIN, SKS, ZONE and RTS files.


FAQ

If you want to convert HOSTS file to , you can use Notepad or similar software from the "Local DNS Resolution Mapping" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….

To convert files to HOSTS, try Notepad or another comparable tool in the "Local DNS Resolution Mapping" category.



The HOSTS Converter Story

The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our HOSTS converter.