Why these DNS entries please?

[Terry Pinnell]

When I used a Command Prompt in XP Home and entered
ipconfig.exe /displaydns
I got a list of a dozen or so entries, like this

www.livecams.nl
---------------------------------------
Record Name . . . . . : www.livecams.nl
Record Type . . . . . : 1
Time To Live . . . . : 595603
Data Length . . . . . : 4
Section . . . . . . . : Answer
A (Host) Record . . . : 127.0.0.1

Other addresses included:
www10.paypopup.com
ads.x10.com
devfw.imrworldwide.com
gif.hitexchange.net
http4.edge.ru4.com
etc

I haven't the foggiest idea what these are, apart from the fact that
they seem like commercial sites. Can someone enlighten me, and advise
what action I should take please?

 

[Chuck]

When I used a Command Prompt in XP Home and entered
ipconfig.exe /displaydns
I got a list of a dozen or so entries, like this

www.livecams.nl
---------------------------------------
Record Name . . . . . : www.livecams.nl
Record Type . . . . . : 1
Time To Live . . . . : 595603
Data Length . . . . . : 4
Section . . . . . . . : Answer
A (Host) Record . . . : 127.0.0.1

Other addresses included:
www10.paypopup.com
ads.x10.com
devfw.imrworldwide.com
gif.hitexchange.net
http4.edge.ru4.com
etc

I haven't the foggiest idea what these are, apart from the fact that
they seem like commercial sites. Can someone enlighten me, and advise
what action I should take please?

Most likely those are from ads embedded in the web pages that you have visited
most recently. "ads.x10.com" is an X10 ad; X10.com is known for its popup ads,
and your security program is blocking X10 ads by assigning it the 127.0.0.1 Ip
address. You don't see the ads, so you don't worry about them.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/06/bad-websites-dont-go-there.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/06/bad-websites-dont-go-there.html

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Most likely those are from ads embedded in the web pages that you have visited
most recently. "ads.x10.com" is an X10 ad; X10.com is known for its popup ads,
and your security program is blocking X10 ads by assigning it the 127.0.0.1 Ip
address. You don't see the ads, so you don't worry about them.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/06/bad-websites-dont-go-there.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/06/bad-websites-dont-go-there.html

Thanks Chuck. Some further research meanwhile seems to imply that this
is connected with my Hosts file, although I confess I'm not entirely
clear about the relationship, if indeed there is one?

Also, if that command is supposed to report all commercial sites I've
visited, (knowingly or otherwise), I'd expect it to have *hundreds* of
entries?

Perhaps, because I use Firefox with the Adblock plug-in, that keeps
the number small?

Or is it because I also use a HOSTS file, with about 5,000 lines,
which I've had for a couple of years. In a spirit of experiment, after
some further reading I've temporarily edited it last night to this
one-liner:
127.0.0.1 localhost

(Not sure what effect this will have - what should I watch out for
please?)

FWIW, on running ipconfig.exe /displaydns again just now, I got a
dozen entries, different from the last lot.

I guess my bottom line question is: can I just ignore these
altogether?

 

[Chuck]

Thanks Chuck. Some further research meanwhile seems to imply that this
is connected with my Hosts file, although I confess I'm not entirely
clear about the relationship, if indeed there is one?

Also, if that command is supposed to report all commercial sites I've
visited, (knowingly or otherwise), I'd expect it to have *hundreds* of
entries?

Perhaps, because I use Firefox with the Adblock plug-in, that keeps
the number small?

Or is it because I also use a HOSTS file, with about 5,000 lines,
which I've had for a couple of years. In a spirit of experiment, after
some further reading I've temporarily edited it last night to this
one-liner:
127.0.0.1 localhost

(Not sure what effect this will have - what should I watch out for
please?)

FWIW, on running ipconfig.exe /displaydns again just now, I got a
dozen entries, different from the last lot.

I guess my bottom line question is: can I just ignore these
altogether?

You're displaying the DNS cache. Waht's in cache depends upon what web pages
you just accessed, and what graphics were on the web page. And yes, Adblock
will affect cache lookups.

Anyway, if you're seeing lots of entries with 127.0.0.1, those are address
lookups that were blocked by Hosts file entries. So yes, you can ignore these
altogether. The X10 entry, in particular, is very common.