Originally Posted by
Saab Dastard
Sounds like you have it hard-coded in the local hosts file.
SD
^^^ this.
c: \windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Still seems to be at that location even on 64 bit systems.
Can be troublesome to edit as it is often specially protected and notepad may try to add .txt to the end of the name. I wouldn't try to edit it with a word processor.
I would open an administrator command window -
cd \windows\system32\drivers\etc
notepad hosts
when done save.
Put a hash "#" at the start of any lines you want to disable. Then you can easily undo it by removing the hash later.
Also -
It is normal for hosting services to respond with an error if you try the ip address. One address may be used for many websites and it uses the entire URL to distinguish between them.