OK so if you're trying to Jailbreak your phone using Pwnage Tool, Sn0wbreeze or Redsn0w and it errors out on the verifying with Apple read on. If you're trying to upgrade your firmware through iTunes and it says you're not eligible for the upgrade when trying to verify with Apple read on.
If you've downgraded your firmware, tried to downgrade your firmware or ever used Tiny Umbrella your hosts file may have been changed. When reloading a firmware it tries to go to Apple's servers to authorize and if it's being redirected to Cydia or whatever then the process will most likely fail. So how do you edit your Hosts file?
Mac
host file editing
Editing in Terminal on the Mac is really quite easy. Launch Terminal.
Type sudo pico /etc/hosts and hit return. You will be
asked for your password. You won't see any characters on
the screen when you type the password. Just hit return
when it is typed and you should find yourself in a text
editor called Pico. Now use the up-down-left-right arrows
to get yourself into position to type the line. You can use
the tab between entries on the each line.
When you are finished typing, hit the ctrl-x keys. It will
ask if you want to save changes. Type a "y" to indicate yes.
Now you have a hosts file with your new entry.
Windows
c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Open it in notepad and edit, you must have admin privileges or you wont be able to save your edited file. If you're unable to save it after the edit save it with a different name in the same location. Then get admin privilege and you can rename the old one hosts1 and rename the alternate you just created hosts
A sample of my hosts file near the bottom, in the hosts file just put a hash infront of anything you want to be edited out so in this case 74.blah.blah.blah is obviously not the Apple servers.
::1 localhost
fe80::1%lo0 localhost
#74.20.xxx.xxx gs.apple.com
#127.0.0.1 gs.apple.com (this should be taken out also)
Anyone editing the hosts file you only comment out any gs.apple.com lines. You do it by putting a hash symbol at the start of the line.
Massie Easier method if used Tiny Umbrella(TU)
For anyone using TU...have you tried just unchecking the "set hosts to Cydia" box in the Advanced settings in TU? I feel like a lot of people are getting into more complicated terminal/host edits without really needing to. The whole point of that setting in TU is that it takes care of it for you...when you want to use backed up SHSH you check it to look to Cydia, when you want an official Apple SHSH you uncheck it.
If you've downgraded your firmware, tried to downgrade your firmware or ever used Tiny Umbrella your hosts file may have been changed. When reloading a firmware it tries to go to Apple's servers to authorize and if it's being redirected to Cydia or whatever then the process will most likely fail. So how do you edit your Hosts file?
Mac
host file editing
Editing in Terminal on the Mac is really quite easy. Launch Terminal.
Type sudo pico /etc/hosts and hit return. You will be
asked for your password. You won't see any characters on
the screen when you type the password. Just hit return
when it is typed and you should find yourself in a text
editor called Pico. Now use the up-down-left-right arrows
to get yourself into position to type the line. You can use
the tab between entries on the each line.
When you are finished typing, hit the ctrl-x keys. It will
ask if you want to save changes. Type a "y" to indicate yes.
Now you have a hosts file with your new entry.
Windows
c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Open it in notepad and edit, you must have admin privileges or you wont be able to save your edited file. If you're unable to save it after the edit save it with a different name in the same location. Then get admin privilege and you can rename the old one hosts1 and rename the alternate you just created hosts
A sample of my hosts file near the bottom, in the hosts file just put a hash infront of anything you want to be edited out so in this case 74.blah.blah.blah is obviously not the Apple servers.
::1 localhost
fe80::1%lo0 localhost
#74.20.xxx.xxx gs.apple.com
#127.0.0.1 gs.apple.com (this should be taken out also)
Anyone editing the hosts file you only comment out any gs.apple.com lines. You do it by putting a hash symbol at the start of the line.
Massie Easier method if used Tiny Umbrella(TU)
For anyone using TU...have you tried just unchecking the "set hosts to Cydia" box in the Advanced settings in TU? I feel like a lot of people are getting into more complicated terminal/host edits without really needing to. The whole point of that setting in TU is that it takes care of it for you...when you want to use backed up SHSH you check it to look to Cydia, when you want an official Apple SHSH you uncheck it.
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