Hi Deepak - First, you should understand that the original purpose of the
HOSTS file (BTW, it should always be named this way - all caps, no
extension) was to provide a local (therefore fast) translation from URLs to
IP addresses for frequently visited sites (typically your Favorites). It
can still be used this way (I do so, for example - there are utilities
available such as CIP,
http://dl.winsite.com/bin/downl?500000007704 which
will convert your Favorites to IP's which you can then saveas and then copy
into your HOSTS file), but has also come to be used to block ad/malware
servers. See here for some good info about this use:
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
This site also has downloads for some utility programs which you will find
useful if you decide to use a HOSTS file such as RenHosts.bat,
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/RenHosts.bat, and lockhosts.bat and
unlockhosts.bat,
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/lockhost.bat, and
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/unlockhost.bat. The lock and unlock files
can be used to protect the HOSTS file in between UPDATES so that it doesn't
get hijacked by malware, while the rename hosts program will allow you to
easily enable or disable the HOSTS file (while keeping the correct naming
convention).
As to size/performance - with any relatively modern computer the delay added
by the HOSTS lookup overhead should be negligable for even moderately large
HOSTS files (typically 250KB to 500KB) used for ad/malware blocking. If you
use it also for DNS-to-IP caching as I refered to above, the time saved over
going out to the net for DNS lookups will offset this many times. If fact
you'll notice a considerable speedup in "normal" address browsing.
--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP
In
