hosts file

  • Thread starter Thread starter smarks
  • Start date Start date
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smarks

I have been unable to view links at a certain website. I was told to rename
the Hosts file in Windows System32. This corrected the problem but I wonder
if there are any untoward implications of renaming this file.
 
smarks said:
I have been unable to view links at a certain website. I was told to rename
the Hosts file in Windows System32. This corrected the problem but I wonder
if there are any untoward implications of renaming this file.
Click to expand...

Probably not. You could always open it with notepad and delete the lines
that are causing the problem. For info my hosts file contains the following.
Note a # at the beginning of the line makes that line a comment so only the
very last line actually does anything....


# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost
 
smarks said:
I have been unable to view links at a certain website. I was told to
rename the Hosts file in Windows System32. This corrected the
problem but I wonder if there are any untoward implications of
renaming this file.
Click to expand...

Well, that depends.

First, I'm not sure why you were told to rename it in the first place, or by
whom. If it really was related to your problem, better to solve the
problem itself - did you have spyware/malware? More info might help.

A 'vanilla' hosts file has precisely one entry:

localhost 127.0.0.1

If you were/are using antispyware software that added entries to prevent
your computer from going to www.bigstupidadvertisingcompany.com , etc., and
you needed access to that, you could've simply remarked out the entry with
the pound sign:

# www.bigstupidadvertisingcompany.com 127.0.0.1

saved the file, and tried again.
 
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