LiveHosts

Switch your host/IP mappings in real time without editing your hosts file
What is LiveHosts?
LiveHosts is an ingenious Chrome extension designed to sidestep a prevalent bottleneck for web developers - the need to change host/IP assignments in the OS hosts file. While it employs a slightly sub-optimal approach, it successfully redirects requests to specified hostnames with an added Host header. Although this leads to displaying the hostname in the address bar following the IP, it impressively maintains consistency in handling all requests either to the IP or the hostname. However, users might experience some functional differences post-redirect such as potential alterations in parts of a webpage, differences in window.location values, and limitations in cross-origin requests.

Extension stats

By: Aioros
Users: 10,000+
Rating: 3.33 (40)
Version: 2.0.0 (Last updated: 2022-03-29)
Creation date: 2019-08-05
Risk impact: Moderate risk impact
Risk likelihood: Very low risk likelihood
Manifest version: 3
Permissions:
  • declarativeNetRequestWithHostAccess
  • scripting
  • storage
Host permissions:
  • *://*/*
Size: 59.17K

Other platforms

LiveHosts (v1.1.3)
3.24 (33) 1,299+
Not available on Edge
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Extension summary

LiveHosts is a Chrome extension that aims at providing a working (even if sub-obtimal) solution to a common nuisance that many web developers have to deal with every day. If you have multiple versions of your websites sharing the same host names on multiple environments, you often need to switch the assignments in your OS hosts file.

Other extensions (like the life-saving HostAdmin) can help with the cumbersomeness, but changes to the hosts file usually take an inconvenient amount of time to actually affect the browser.

Unfortunately, there is no way to make Chrome direct requests for a hostname to a specific IP without a standard redirect - you could set up a smart HTTP proxy, but it's often not possible or not convenient.

This extension settles for a sub-obtimal approach: requests to the indicated hostnames are redirected to the chosen IPs with an additional Host header. The browser's address bar reflects this behaviour showing the hostname right after the IP (e.g. http://127.0.0.1/www.example.com/). The extension also tries to take care of all requests to either the IP or the hostname in a consistent way.

Issues

After the redirect, the user is effectively in a different domain that the one they expected. They may notice some functional differences:

  • depending on the server, parts of a web page referring to the site URL (like href and src attributes) could be different from the original
  • window.location has a different value that can potentially throw off JavaScript snippets
  • most Cross-Origin request won't work

User reviews

These summaries are automatically generated weekly using AI based on recent user reviews. Chrome Web Store does not verify user reviews, so some user reviews may be inaccurate, spammy, or outdated.
Pros
  • Acts as a convenient alternative to editing the hosts file.
  • Allows viewing of different versions of the same domain in different tabs.
  • Helpful for web developers when building and testing websites.
Cons
  • Does not work on Chrome but functions well on Firefox.
  • Rewrites the URL, which can cause issues with SSL certificates.
  • Lacks an enable/disable feature for records, making it cumbersome to use.
Most mentioned
  • Not functional on Chrome.
  • Useful for web development.
  • Issues with SSL due to URL rewriting.
Recent reviews
К сожалению, не работает плагин.

by How Mun Lee, 2024-09-06

Не работает.
View all user reviews

Extension safety

Risk impact

LiveHosts requires a few sensitive permissions. Exercise caution before installing.

Risk likelihood

LiveHosts has earned a good reputation and can be trusted.

Upgrade to see risk analysis details

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