internet problems

[Guest]

my o/s is windows xp/home. on csrtain links on the
internet, such as pogo, nfl.com, when i click on these
links it automatically reroutes me itself back to my
desktop, i have done virus scans, adawareand cant detect
any problems, i also have my security settings at medium
and am not using a firewall, anyone have any ideas, i
used to be able to acess these sites, since then i have
reformatted my hard drive.Any help or suggestions would
be muchly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[davetest]

my o/s is windows xp/home. on csrtain links on the
internet, such as pogo, nfl.com, when i click on these
links it automatically reroutes me itself back to my
desktop, i have done virus scans, adawareand cant detect
any problems, i also have my security settings at medium
and am not using a firewall, anyone have any ideas, i
used to be able to acess these sites, since then i have
reformatted my hard drive.Any help or suggestions would
be muchly appreciated. Thanks.

Have you a customized HOSTS file?
DAve

 

[Guest]

-----Original Message-----

Have you a customized HOSTS file?
DAve
.

 

[Guest]

im not sure what that is Dave, please explain

 

[davetest]

im not sure what that is Dave, please explain

There's a file on the system, usually in
c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\.
This file is simply called "hosts" (without the quotes)

It is often used as method of dealing with advertising
servers and similar. The unmodified HOSTS fle has a single line
and it looks like this (except for a few comments)

127.0.0.1 localhost

However, the hosts file can be modified in Notepad to contain other
domains, as I said usually advertising-related - here's a sample:
127.0.0.1 adserver.adtech.de
127.0.0.1 imageserv.adtech.de
127.0.0.1 counter.advancewebhosting.com
127.0.0.1 survey.advantageresearch.com
127.0.0.1 advertwizard.com

When a site is referenced in a web page,
the system searches the hosts file for a name match. If it's found,
the search is satisfied and the number to the left replaces the
site's true internet address. 127.0.0.1 refers to "my pc" or
localhost. In this way, the advertising site is never contacted.

Sometimes, people set these up and months go by and they forget,
and sometimes when certain sites can't be accessed this file should be
checked to see if it not acidentally the culprit!

Dave