Hosts file

[Guest]

I decided to look at the hosts file in my XP system and found that instead
of just the line I was told to expect
"127.0.0.1 local host"

it actually has 9000 entries ! The entries start with:
# Start of entries inserted by Spybot - Search & Destroy

and then the 9000 entries which are similar to
127.0.0.1 www.007guard.com

and the last line is:
# End of entries inserted by Spybot - Search & Destroy

This does not seem proper. Is my PC a zombie?

Jeff

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I decided to look at the hosts file in my XP system and found that
instead of just the line I was told to expect
"127.0.0.1 local host"

it actually has 9000 entries ! The entries start with:
# Start of entries inserted by Spybot - Search & Destroy

and then the 9000 entries which are similar to
127.0.0.1 www.007guard.com

and the last line is:
# End of entries inserted by Spybot - Search & Destroy

This does not seem proper. Is my PC a zombie?

Why doesn't it seem proper?
After all - you quoted what happened in your posting...

"Spybot - Search & Destroy"

Someone (you?) ran Spybot Search and Destroy and used it to populate the
hosts file.

 

[Leonard Grey]

You don't have a clue.

 

[Twayne]

LG:

You don't have a clue.

And you are one ignorant, hormongous ignoramus for you rude, crude,
non-intelligent, meaningless and otherwise stupid waste of ether and
sapiency. Anxious to waste what's left of any credibility you ever had?

 

[Guest]

LG:

And you are one ignorant, hormongous ignoramus for you rude, crude,
non-intelligent, meaningless and otherwise stupid waste of ether and
sapiency. Anxious to waste what's left of any credibility you ever
had?

Thank you Twayne. I was going to just ignore his comment but am glad for
yours.

For the record: even though the hosts file said those entries were inserted
by Spybot, any malware could pretend to be "Spybot" (or anything else) and I
was not knowledgeable enough to be sure if this was really something that
Spybot did or something one should never see in a hosts file and therefore
be suspicious of.

 

[Nil]

I decided to look at the hosts file in my XP system and found that
instead of just the line I was told to expect
"127.0.0.1 local host"

it actually has 9000 entries ! The entries start with:
# Start of entries inserted by Spybot - Search & Destroy

and then the 9000 entries which are similar to
127.0.0.1 www.007guard.com

and the last line is:
# End of entries inserted by Spybot - Search & Destroy

This does not seem proper. Is my PC a zombie?

The answer is in Spybot S&D's help file. Search for "Hosts"

 

[Twayne]

Thank you Twayne. I was going to just ignore his comment but am glad
for yours.

For the record: even though the hosts file said those entries were
inserted by Spybot, any malware could pretend to be "Spybot" (or
anything else) and I was not knowledgeable enough to be sure if this
was really something that Spybot did or something one should never
see in a hosts file and therefore be suspicious of.

A healthy amount of paranoia over such things is always good as long as
you don't let it become an obsession<g>. And, it is possible for
someone to pose as whoever they want to as far as modifying the HOSTS
file should they get access to it, but more often they just add their
own entries; much harder to locate.

The only dumb question is the one that doesn't get asked for fear of
asking a dumb question, IMO.

Cheers,

Twayne