Why is my Hosts file so big?

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February 29th, 2004, 09:58 PM
Leurgy

Why is my Hosts file so big?

It is 23K and has a lot of references to kazza in it. I use kazza lite. I like John Prine and he's hard to find.

I really don't under stand what a hosts file is or does.

I downloaded some codecs from kazza-lite and I have at least three programs installed (They showed up in the control panel in Win98SE) that I was not aware that I was installing. Ran Spybot S&D (V 1.2, updated) and it found:

Common Hijacker: Redirected Host, followed by a web site address and a DNS number. Two occurences.

What does the Hosts file really Do?
February 29th, 2004, 10:19 PM
General Winters

23k? Not a lot, some hosts files are 500k+

Each human readable address www.name.com(etc) is associated with an IP address , a machine readable address.

So, www.yahoo.com might be 216.109.118.79

When you want to go to a web site you type the address and the computer looks in the hosts file to see if its listed and if not looks up the IP address on a DNS , a domain name server.

The HOSTS file acts in a way as an address book, addresses entered in it are fast to look up and it saves the computer from having to ask the DN server .

If an entry exists in the hosts file it is used so if you want to block an address ie you dont want anybody to go to www.getspamandvirihere.com then you enter in the HOSTS file

127.0.0.1 www.getspamandvirihere.com

127.0.0.1 is your computer ! Thus the browser tries to find the website , looks on your computer for it, fails to find it and no web page is loaded.

People use the hosts file with Kazaa Lite to stop ads from being loaded . If you enter lots of addresses of adservers, spam sites etc then their ads dont load, you don't get their cookies/popups etc etc . All this helps to speed up browsing the web, people maintain lists of adservers , spyware sites, etc and enter them into hosts files that you can download. And since the hosts file is only a text file , you can use notepad (or word or wordpad etc) to edit it and put in your own entries.

(note , the HOSTS file has no extension, the hosts.sam file is a sample, the real file is simply called HOSTS)

See

http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/

Download http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/Downloads/hosts127001.zip

Some adware and spyware can redirect searchs etc to their own webpages by inserting entries into the HOSTS file. So if you tried to go to a antispyware site , it would redirect you to a spam site or a porn site etc .

Spybot S+D can lock your hosts file as read only , plus you should always have a backup copy stored somewhere.
February 29th, 2004, 10:46 PM
VerLux

Re: Why is my Hosts file so big?

Quote:

Originally posted by Leurgy
It is 23K and has a lot of references to kazza in it. I use kazza lite. I like John Prine and he's hard to find.

When you install Kazaalite, there is an option to have them install a hosts file for you. In all likelihood, if you do not remember where this hosts file might have otherwise come from, that is where it came from. The reason Kazaalite came into existence in the first place was because Kazaa was so spyware-, script-, and ad-ridden. It was the Kazaa basic engine that used the Kazaa servers but without all the unwanted extras that inevitably accompanied it. Therefore, you want all those references to Kazaa in there - because that is what Kazaalite was helping you avoid.

Quote:

I really don't under stand what a hosts file is or does.

General Winters has given a great explanation above :)

Quote:

I downloaded some codecs from kazza-lite and I have at least three programs installed (They showed up in the control panel in Win98SE) that I was not aware that I was installing.

There is a difference between downloading codecs from Kazaalite and downloading codecs for Kazaalite. I wouldn't install any program I downloaded from Kazaa/K-lite without carefully scanning and inspecting it first. Kazaalite codecs, on the other hand, were available for download at the same sites Kazaalite itself was. (Unfortunately, they seem to have disappeared along with K-lite itself.)
March 1st, 2004, 12:17 AM
jerryctx

Have you installed any software that claims to speed up your surfing? One of the tricks they use is to add every site you visit to the hosts file. Next time you visit, the initial connection is faster because no DNS call is necessary as explained by General Winters.
March 1st, 2004, 12:37 AM
fink

& one more thing you should be aware of is that sometimes websites will change their DNS numbers... sometimes because they've moved to another server or provider or for security reasons. It would be something to look at if you suddenly cant access a website that you know should be there... it will appear to your browser that it no longer exists. You'll have to either edit in the new DNS number or delete the old entry by opening the hosts file in notepad.
March 1st, 2004, 12:45 AM
Nix

Ok, I found that there is a hosts file that comes with Sbybot.

I copied the entries to my Hosts file and it made no difference on the couple I tried.

eg real.com and mycometcursor.com that are amongst the many llisted there in the format as follows

Code:

127.0.0.1 localhost 127.0.0.1 images.real.com 127.0.0.1 real.com 127.0.0.1 ct5.hypercount.com 127.0.0.1 acme.bfast.com 127.0.0.1 ads.bfast.com

This is in WinNT and the file is located in c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc

I saved and rebooted and started up IE 5.5 and then typed real.com and it took me straight there so I typed mycometcursor.com and it took me there too.

So what's supposed to happen with this host files thing as it doesn't seem to work - not for me anyway.
March 1st, 2004, 12:47 AM
Nix

In fact typing in localhost got me this
March 1st, 2004, 12:36 PM
VerLux

Quote:

Originally posted by Nix
Ok, I found that there is a hosts file that comes with Sbybot.

I copied the entries to my Hosts file and it made no difference on the couple I tried.

eg real.com and mycometcursor.com that are amongst the many llisted there in the format as follows

Code:

127.0.0.1 localhost 127.0.0.1 images.real.com 127.0.0.1 real.com 127.0.0.1 ct5.hypercount.com 127.0.0.1 acme.bfast.com 127.0.0.1 ads.bfast.com

This is in WinNT and the file is located in c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc

I saved and rebooted and started up IE 5.5 and then typed real.com and it took me straight there so I typed mycometcursor.com and it took me there too.

So what's supposed to happen with this host files thing as it doesn't seem to work - not for me anyway.

I think - not sure, but you have to type in "www.real.com" as well as "real.com" to effectively block it. "Mycometcursor.com" doesn't appear in the hosts entries you posted so that's why it won't be blocked (unless you have it in there and didn't post it...) Also, are you using a proxy server of any sort? That will bypass your hosts file.
March 1st, 2004, 12:37 PM
VerLux

Quote:

Originally posted by Nix
In fact typing in localhost got me this

ninemsn? What is that - Aussie MSN?
March 1st, 2004, 03:47 PM
Welshjim

VerLux--Just thought you should know that your link to SamSpade does not work. I do not know whether it is just temporary or gone forever. It has not worked for over a week now.
March 1st, 2004, 05:22 PM
fink

Samspade has been MIA for a couple of weeks now. If you like you can download the stand-alone samspade program here..

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/fil...id,4709,00.asp
March 1st, 2004, 06:15 PM
Nix

Quote:

Originally posted by VerLux
I think - not sure, but you have to type in "www.real.com" as well as "real.com" to effectively block it. "Mycometcursor.com" doesn't appear in the hosts entries you posted so that's why it won't be blocked (unless you have it in there and didn't post it...) Also, are you using a proxy server of any sort? That will bypass your hosts file.

I tried it as just real.com and it went ahead and loaded it up despite the fact that it is listed as both www.real.com and real.com in the hosts file.

Also that list was just a sample of the hosts file, not the whole file.

We could be using a proxy here at work.
March 1st, 2004, 07:48 PM
Welshjim

Nix--

Quote:

Also that list was just a sample of the hosts file, not the whole file

Not sure whether this is your statement or whether you are quoting someone else. So maybe you already know that most PC's come with a HOSTS.sam file that shows you what a HOSTS file should look like. But HOSTS.sam does not function as a HOSTS file. A functioning HOSTS file would be named only HOSTS and I think has to be located in <directory>:\Windows\.
Also each entry has to be prefaced by 127.0.0.1 or 0.0.0.0 in order to block access.
March 1st, 2004, 08:08 PM
Nix

Just to clarify for all - that was an extract, ie sample, of what is in my hosts file.

I didn't want to post my whole hosts file as it is 353kb and thus would have been a long post
March 1st, 2004, 08:27 PM
General Winters

http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/how_to_use_hosts.html

.....

(4.) If you have a proxy server:

You should only need to do this step if you use a proxy server. Examples of proxy servers include: WebWasher, CookieCop Plus, and a web cache server provided by your ISP. If you don't use a proxy server you can skip to step (5).If your hosts file does not seem to be working for you and you skipped this step, try coming back and completing this process.

In IE - choose tools:internet options:connections and choose your connection. If you are using a proxy server, make sure the box called "bypass proxy server for local addresses" is checked.

In Netscape - go to Edit: Preferences: Advanced: Proxies and click the manual setting. Then click on view and type "127.0.0.1" into the exceptions box at the bottom.
March 2nd, 2004, 02:45 AM
VerLux

Quote:

Originally posted by Welshjim
VerLux--Just thought you should know that your link to SamSpade does not work. I do not know whether it is just temporary or gone forever. It has not worked for over a week now.

It comes and goes :( I wish he'd get better hosting

Quote:

Originally posted by fink
Samspade has been MIA for a couple of weeks now. If you like you can download the stand-alone samspade program here..

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/fil...id,4709,00.asp

The reason I always liked SamSpade.org was because my IP wouldn't appear as the originator of the queries :D

Quote:

Originally posted by Nix
We could be using a proxy here at work.

That's the problem then :\

General Winters, thank you! Any idea how to do it in Opera?