Recommended newer related help article: Device Link never connects to setup page
During installation of the Mileage Ace Device Link application (for Wifi device setup), an important file called the “hosts” file on your computer needs to be updated. This allows your web page to talk securely to both your mileage tracker and our web server at the same time.
The problem with hosts files is that on Windows most anti-virus software will lock the file so it cannot be edited.
Disable Anti-Virus and Reinstall
The first thing to try is to disable your anti-virus application and reinstall the Device Link. Here’s a helpful information on disabling anti-virus.
How To Update Hosts File By Hand
Anti-virus software is really complicated and on a lot of them you can disable it in one place but it doesn’t disable all of the functions – so you still end up with the error above. Luckily, you can edit the hosts file by hand.
In order to complete the steps below, you will need to have an admin account or access to an admin password. For most people your regular account is an admin, but some company computers have extra privileges setup.
- In the Windows search bar, type Notepad – but do not open it yet
- Right-click on the Notepad application that appears and choose Run As Administrator.
- Once Notepad opens, go to the menu and choose “File -> Open”
- Navigate to the folder C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
- Set the “Show files of type” box to All Files
- Open the file called hosts (it should say “hosts” only, not “hosts.txt” or any other variation)
- Add a new line to the file, either at the top or the bottom that has the following (please copy/paste this to avoid an error):
127.0.0.1 localhost.mileage-ace.com
- Save the file (File -> Save). It should save without asking for a confirmation or to name the file.
When you save the file, it should do this without any window popping up. If you chose “File -> Save” and are prompted to choose a name for the file then the file is locked from being saved and saving under a new name will not work – even if you choose the name as “hosts” because it will save as “hosts.txt” which is different than “hosts”.
To fix this you may need to find the file in your Windows Explorer folder and unlock it.
Once the file is saved, wait for about 30 seconds then refresh your mileage ace setup page and it should connect to the Device Link application now. If it doesn’t, you may need to close and reopen your web browser.
If it continues to fail, try re-opening the hosts file as described above and make sure the new line you added is actually saved in the file.