HOSTS ...again !

[RJK]

I just Norton ghosted XP pro on an 8gb hd, onto an 80gb hd, for a friend,
and all went swimmingly

We had some to spare...which is rare...so I popped
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm 's host file into his
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc folder, (even though the hosts file seems to
have been abandoned ? , and rebooted and it's being ignored by his XP pro
/ IE6 !

WHAT IS IT WINDOWS ...regarding the hosts file? How much more crap have I
got to learn about proxy servers and goodness know what else ? I thought
the theory was, that the HOSTS file is just dropped into the etc directory
and it's detected by Windows at start-up ? And the hosts filename, (with no
filetype), has to be in uppercase ? It's Hosts in the zip from the
above site.

As a test, into his IE6 url address slot I typed www.tangozebra.com which
should have been directed to 127.0.0.1 because this url is listed in hosts -
the web site loaded, so Hosts was not being read by his XP / IE6 !

Now during extensive tweaking on my own pc because hosts was being ignored
by my XP Home ed. / IE6 , ..hosts suddenly started working and I don't know
why ...which was REALLY annoying because I was trying to be methodical.
....I was putting in no-ads.pac dun auto configuration script from
http://www.schooner.com/~loverso/no-ads/#howtouse and at one point I thought
that http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=271361 had somehow triggered
something, somewhere to make XP use the hosts file. Then it seemed to me
that IE6's security | Intranet setting "Include all sites that bypass the
proxy setting" was what did the trick but, now it doesn't seem that way.

Now this may sound daft but, I had a shortcut to the etc directory on my
desktop, and I opened the etc folder, (where I keep hosts.zip), and opened
hosts.zip and dragged Hosts from that zip file into the etc folder. The
filename briefly appeared as Hosts , and without any intervention from me
suddenly changed to HOSTS ...all uppercase. So what's going on here ?

any thoughts appreciated

regards, Richard

 

[Kelly]

Ever thought of posting this in the IE group, Richard and/or contacting Mike
via his email link?

 

[RJK]

Hi Kelly, that's a good idea, will do

regards, Richard

 

[Guest]

SpywareBlaster is a program that once installed can be left to do the job. Not only that but it has an update feature that allows additional sites to be added to the hosts list. Much more conveniant. Have fun. {:~)

 

[Kelly]

Thought it would be, good luck!

 

[RJK]

Thanx for that. I'll definately experiment with that one.

regards, Richard

SpywareBlaster is a program that once installed can be left to do the job.

Not only that but it has an update feature that allows additional sites to
be added to the hosts list. Much more conveniant. Have fun. {:~)

 

[J. S. Pack]

I just Norton ghosted XP pro on an 8gb hd, onto an 80gb hd, for a friend,
and all went swimmingly

We had some to spare...which is rare...so I popped
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm 's host file into his
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc folder, (even though the hosts file seems to
have been abandoned ? , and rebooted and it's being ignored by his XP pro
/ IE6 !

WHAT IS IT WINDOWS ...regarding the hosts file? How much more crap have I
got to learn about proxy servers and goodness know what else ? I thought
the theory was, that the HOSTS file is just dropped into the etc directory
and it's detected by Windows at start-up ? And the hosts filename, (with no
filetype), has to be in uppercase ? It's Hosts in the zip from the
above site.

As a test, into his IE6 url address slot I typed www.tangozebra.com which
should have been directed to 127.0.0.1 because this url is listed in hosts -
the web site loaded, so Hosts was not being read by his XP / IE6 !

Now during extensive tweaking on my own pc because hosts was being ignored
by my XP Home ed. / IE6 , ..hosts suddenly started working and I don't know
why ...which was REALLY annoying because I was trying to be methodical.
...I was putting in no-ads.pac dun auto configuration script from
http://www.schooner.com/~loverso/no-ads/#howtouse and at one point I thought
that http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=271361 had somehow triggered
something, somewhere to make XP use the hosts file. Then it seemed to me
that IE6's security | Intranet setting "Include all sites that bypass the
proxy setting" was what did the trick but, now it doesn't seem that way.

Now this may sound daft but, I had a shortcut to the etc directory on my
desktop, and I opened the etc folder, (where I keep hosts.zip), and opened
hosts.zip and dragged Hosts from that zip file into the etc folder. The
filename briefly appeared as Hosts , and without any intervention from me
suddenly changed to HOSTS ...all uppercase. So what's going on here ?

any thoughts appreciated

regards, Richard

My thoughts are, why don't you just stop getting your panties into a wad by
messing around with HOSTS? Just use what Bill gave you in the beginning.
And then you can eat.

If you want some kind of filtering, use blocking programs or blocking
browsers like myie2 or blocking firewalls like Outpost or blocking proxies
like Proxomitron. Hosts is less efficient and long lists can lead to a
marked slowdown in browsing anyway.

 

[RJK]

I wanted HOSTS to work - which it now does but, above all I want to know why
it wouldn't work for ages - and then suddnely started working for a reason I
couldn't determine - which was interesting but, frustrating. I use a
variety of software - in a sort of multi-layered approach to internet
security. I particularly wanted HOSTS because it block the
bluestreak/atdmt/doubleclick/tangozebra ads. that display on my ISP's
homepage. no-ads.pac java script / dun auto configuration file from
http://www.schooner.com/~loverso/no-ads/#howtouse also block them, so I am
almost happy ! ...and I never "wet my pants," thank you !

regards, Richard