Program Update: Hosts Block 1.3.2 Added - Active protection: Includes two mode Alerting and Silent. Silent is Default. Added - Custom entries allow the user to add in custom entries without the worry of over write. Also note when needing the edit the hosts file you will need to do the editing from with the Hosts Block GUI and click save. This is a must because of the Active Protection will overwrite your changes for security reasons. Right now there isn't a way to turn off Active protection. Ill wait to see what people think and if I should add in that option. Also to note that every 25 seconds Hosts Block checks the Hash value if changed. Download: http://bitly.com/HostsBlockSetup thank you Brock
For those we are interested I've created a forum for Hosts Block http://hostsblock.boards.net/ for users to post feature suggestions and support.
Program Update: Hosts Block 1.3.4 Added - Disable/Enable Hosts file (Right click system tray icon to use option.) thank you Brock
Program Update Hosts Block 1.3.5 Minor change. Added - new icon to system tray to show when disable or not. Thank you Brock
Thanks for the nice tool. I have a query. Some tools have feature to add entries to hosts file when executed locally in windows system. Does Hosts Block allow such modifications to host file when Active Protection is'on' ? Does Host Block prompt with a message which Application (with system path) is trying to modify host file and what entries are added to host file ?
thank you for the positive feedback. Currently if you where to edit the hosts file say using notepad or wordpad Hosts Block would see the edit and deny you from editing. Currently the only way to edit is open Hosts Block and select "Entries" > Then "Custom Entries". If you disable Hosts Block and Edit the hosts file with notepad it would work right up until you when to turn Hosts Block back on and then it would see that the Hosts file was changed and would then fix the issue. Hosts Block does prompt if the Setting is selected in Options but by default it will silently fix the issue. Right now its just a generic message just stating that a change was made not by Hosts Block but by something else. I will take this as a feature request and add that into the program for you. I like the idea and didn't think of it. Hope this answered your questions. If you have any more feel free to ask or PM me. thank you Brock
Thanks for reply. Request feature: Lets say if a User wants to add some entries in hosts file by executing a certain tool. In this scenario Hosts Block can prompt with application details along with 'Allow modification' & 'Deny modification' option. In my opinion this feature will be useful since user want to add genuine entries to hosts file by executing some software or tool.
Thank you for the request. Right now the way Hosts Block works is Hosts Block will by default download the MVPS or other sources and rewrite the hosts file with updated entries. That being said if you use any other tool to edit the hosts file Hosts Block will see it and block it. Right now the only way around that is open Hosts Block and add genuine entries in the Custom Entries option which is found under Entries menu. so that feature is possible but would almost be a rewrite of Hosts Block. This software is intended to just install and it update the hosts file from other sources use as MVPS etc, The Active Protection feature will prevent any other app from changing the hosts file because it watches the Hash value of the windows hosts file for changes. This check is done every 25 seconds. hope this helps. thank you Brock
so you are saying, if I turn 'off' Active Protection and then use other software or tool to modify hosts file and then if I turn Active Protection 'on', will hosts block revoke all changes made to host file done by software or even manually using notepad or wordpad ? General Question: having too many entries in hosts file will it slow down internet browsing or will there be any other delays in OS / applications connecting (download / upload) to internet ?
As of right now the only way to turn off Hosts Block is by right clicking the tray icon and select "Disable hosts file". That will disable Hosts Block's Updating, and Active Protection. once its disabled you will notice the hosts file will be renamed to hostsDISABLED instead of hosts. Once you enable it again it will go back to hosts as the file name and start working again. It can slow your internet down but right now I'm only using the MVPS hosts file and I don't see any different either way though browsing or download/Uploading. thank you Brock
IMHO, whatever changes made to Hosts file when Active Protection is disabled, Hosts Block should retain it even after Active Protection is turned 'on' again. But as of now the Hosts Block does not allow to retain changes (made by other tools) to hosts file when Active Protection is turned 'on' again Maybe if possible you can add a feature / option like 'allow and retain updates to host file by other tools when Active Protection is disabled'. This option if enabled can allow other tools to update and retain changes to hosts file when Active Protection is disabled. When Active Protection is turned 'on' again changes done to hosts file will be retained by Hosts Block and not revoked. Hope i'm not troubling you too much Thanks and Regards Rafales
Yes it is possible, I will include that in my next update. Give me about week or so. its not hard to add in I'm just busy most of next week. Any other suggestions are welcome Thank you Brock
Program Update: Hosts Block 1.4.1 Added - The ability to use other tools to edit the windows hosts file. When added the new entries are added into Hosts Block Custom Entries. Note: To remove the new entries added by the other tool you will need to remove them from there. Added - Email Alerts for Active protection. You will now able at to setup email alerts for both alerting and Silent modes. This is in the options menu. Added - Search functions to both Custom Entries and Exclusions Lists. if you find any bugs or issues let me know. thank you Brock
Thanks a lot Brocke for the new version and updates. After downloading the msi file, Chrome displayed the usual message but the opted to 'keep' the file (screenshot enclosed) I got an error message when I changed the options and when I clicked 'close' button (screenshot enclosed) I got a similar error message when I installed the msi file I got this error only once. Otherwise program works fine
Yeah I know about that error. I'm trying to solve it. It's a rare error. Let me know what you think on using it
Program Update: Hosts Block 1.4.2 Added - Email Alerts for program updates. Every time Hosts Block updates you will get an Email if you want stating the computer has been updated. Bug fix - possible fix on bug that was found by @Rafales Download: http://bitly.com/HostsBlockSetup Thank you Brock
Program Update: Hosts Block 1.4.3 Added - Help section. This should I hope help a new user understand the different options in Hosts Block. I try my best to explain. Suggestions are welcome in changes in this area.. thank you Brock
Program Update: Hosts Block 1.4.4 Added - More to help section Major Bug fixed - The option when restoring the hosts file that backed up was broken and wasn't working at all. It is now fixed. ... thank you Brock
Program Update: Hosts Block 1.4.5 Tweaked program updating a little to help in certain cases where Hosts Block wouldn't restart after updating and Hosts Block would have to be closed and reopened to use updated version. thank you Brock
Program Update: Hosts Block 1.4.6 Added - Search option in main UI, Right click to search hosts file Updated - Help section, Added Coloring for better viewing Updated - Options window a little to better organize for future if need. thank you Brock