Hosts general question

[Ozvideo]

I have a question about these hosts files that are loaded to prevent
spyware,popups etc. from certain web sites. Some sites demand that you have
cookies enabled before you can visit them Now I realize that the hosts file
is different but what I was wondering is, if I were to have a site on a list
will I actually still be able to get to see the site I want, without the
popups,spyware etc. or am I likely to be refused entry to that site? Are
the sites on the list aware that they are being out maneuvered?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...a2-6a57-4c57-a8bd-dbf62eda9671&displaylang=en

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

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:

| I have a question about these hosts files that are loaded to prevent
| spyware,popups etc. from certain web sites. Some sites demand that you have
| cookies enabled before you can visit them Now I realize that the hosts file
| is different but what I was wondering is, if I were to have a site on a list
| will I actually still be able to get to see the site I want, without the
| popups,spyware etc. or am I likely to be refused entry to that site? Are
| the sites on the list aware that they are being out maneuvered?

 

[David Candy]

Hosts convert names to IP numbers so your computer can find it. Computers find each other by number not name. Hosts and the more normal DNS are like an automated phone book. If you redirect a site to 127.0.0.1 (the self test address for your computer) then windows can't find it (unless the site is hosted on your computer - unlikely).

Ads on web pages often come from sites different to the web page. www.smh.com.au take their ads from the following web servers (fairfax is the company that publishes the SMH)
ffxcam.smh.com.au
fdimages.fairfax.com.au
ads.fairfax.com.au

So I block these by directing them to my test ip. I also put the IP address of their site in so IE doesn't spend 10 minutes waiting for a slow DNS server to answer (this is the main web site I visit).
203.26.51.42 www.smh.com.au
203.26.51.42 smh.com.au

Now if SMH cared they could test that the ads loaded and refuse to display the page if not. But I've not seen any sites that do that.