Hosts mail

You're referring to the hosts file and email!

The hosts file is a text file that contains a list of IP addresses and corresponding hostnames. It's used by the operating system to resolve hostnames to IP addresses. When you enter a hostname in your web browser or command line, the operating system checks the hosts file to see if there's an entry that matches the hostname. If there is, it uses the IP address associated with that entry to connect to the website or server.

In the context of email, the hosts file can be used to block or redirect email traffic. Here are a few ways to use the hosts file for email:

1. Blocking spam emails: You can add entries to the hosts file to block emails from specific domains or IP addresses that are known to be spammy.
2. Redirecting emails: You can use the hosts file to redirect emails from a specific domain or IP address to a different email address or server.
3. Testing email delivery: You can use the hosts file to test email delivery by adding an entry that redirects emails to a specific email address or server.

To use the hosts file for email, you'll need to edit the file and add the necessary entries. The format of the entries is as follows:

IP address   hostname

For example, to block emails from the example.com domain, you would add the following entry:

127.0.0.1   example.com

This will redirect emails from example.com to the local machine (127.0.0.1).

Keep in mind that the hosts file is a system-level file, so you'll need to have administrator privileges to edit it. Additionally, the hosts file is not a foolproof way to block or redirect email traffic, as some email clients or servers may not respect the entries in the file.