Modify Host File on Windows 7
Bradley Schacht is a Principal Program Manager on the Microsoft Fabric product team based in Saint Augustine, FL. Bradley is a former consultant, trainer, and has coauthored 6 SQL Server and Power BI books, most recently Learn Microsoft Fabric. As a member of the Microsoft Fabric product team, Bradley works directly with customers to solve some of their most complex data problems and helps shape the future of Microsoft Fabric. Bradley gives back to the community through speaking at events such as the SQLBits, Fabric Community Conference, PASS Community Data Summit, SQL Saturdays, Code Camps, and user groups across the country including locally at the Jacksonville SQL Server User Group (JSSUG). He is a contributor on SQLServerCentral.com and blogs on his personal site, BradleySchacht.com.
However, I can modify the host file to redirect google.com to the IP address of yahoo.com 
Now when I ping google.com I can see that it is trying to use the IP for yahoo.com 
...and when I go to google.com in my web browser it loads the Yahoo homepage. This can be very useful for testing. If you want to make sure that you don't hit the production server simply redirect the name of the production server to the IP address of your development server and away you go! 