Hosts files explaination what's happening?

[stanny]

Dear Wilders,

I've got 1 DNS blocked in my hosts file which is sa.microsoft.com. I've put 127.0.0.1 sa.microsoft.com in my hosts file in the correct manner. When I ran the Windows Search to search a file on my local computer my firewall Outpost Pro asked to create automatic rules for Windows Explorer, which I did. It also says it wants to connect to sa.microsoft.com. Me thinking ok this wouldn't be any problem because I've got the DNS already blocked in my hosts file right? But then I took a look at the Outpost Pro logs.. and there were TCP connections allowed to sa.microsoft.com!! I know how I can deny this in the Outpost Pro rules but my basic question is why doesn't Windows block this due to the hosts rule and how does Outpost coörperate with the hosts file anyway?

Thanks in advance,:D
cheers
stanny

[Stem]

Hi stanny, Welcome to Wilders,

Please first check that "sa.microsoft.com" is not in Outpost DNS cache (you may of already connected to this for windows updates or windows help), if the IP is in the outpost DNS cache then no DNS lookup will be made, and the hosts file simply bypassed.

[stanny]

You're the man!

Thanks a lot

stanny