Anyone familiar with Spy Sweeper and/or localhost ?

Hi.

I did a dumb thing today, I'm looking for some help.

While accessing the Spy Sweeper (version 5.5.7), I deleted by mistake the line under Shields, Hosts File Shield Options, and removed the line about 127.0.0.1. (There were no additional entries)

I seem to remember that the original line said something about a valid loopback address. But I may be wrong ! (Does anyone know, like a current user of the Spy Sweeper ?)

I knew almost nothing about the HOSTS file, in the end (after much research) I managed to add in the empty (except for the comments/text) HOSTS file to add:
127.0.0.1 localhost

Is that correct ?

If I now look under Hosts File Shield Options (Spy Sweeper) I see:

Address IP Address in Hosts File Correct IP address
localhost -blocked- 127.0.0.1

The forum software messes it a bit up (elimination of spaces),
basically: Adress:localhost
IP Address in Hosts File: -blocked-
Correct IP adress: 127.0.0.1

It doesn't say anything about a valid loopback entry/address. (Like I thought it did previously, but I may not remember that correctly).

Do you think/know if I've fixed it ? (or did I make a mess of it?)

Maybe you would think I should ask Webroot, but their technical support is terrible or nonexistant. So I'm looking for some feedback here.

 

Hello Fly,
go to funkytoad
link
download HostsXpert
extract the files to somewhere e.g. desktop.
open the folder on the desktop and double click on the HostsXpert.exe file
on the left hand side there should be a button called "restore MS hosts file"
click on it. press ok when prompted to.
problem solved.
hope this helps
lodore

 

Thank you, Lodore.

I did as you suggested.

But the hosts file now looks exactly like I recreated it manually:

127.0.01 localhost

(I'm not sure if the comments/text have been changed, but that doesn't matter).

Did that software change anything else ?

 

Spy Sweeper, localhost, ssaservice.xe !!!



I followed Lodore's suggestions.

As I stated, the recreated HOSTS file had the same content as the one I had manually recreated.

But apparently, that's not all it did.

One thing I had noticed earlier, is that sometimes the icons/images/shortcuts (or whatever they are called) on the desktop are more or less white/incomplete for a brief moment. (Don't ask me for an accurate description, it looks like 'it' just takes a short time to load.). I'm not sure when that happens, maybe after going to the configuration screen, or after deleting temporary files. At itself not a big isssue.

I had already asked if the software recommended by Lodore has done something else than just recreating the hosts file. I got no response.

It seems I have a different problem now, not just a small one.

As some of you may know, I still have McAfee's Virusscan Plus 2008.

The somewhat serious problem is that quite often saservice.exe (siteadvisor)goes to a 100 % CPU utilization, and usually it doesn't stop until I do something about it (most effective is killing the saservice.exe process in the task manager). Basically, the computer more or less freezes. When does it happen ? Mostly unpredictable, but typically when switching to another page, or opening another tab in my IE 7. (Maybe it has also something to do with web bugs, although I have no real web bug blocking software, but I have the ad shield in the Spy Sweeper). Trying to kill IE 7 in the task manager doesn't work, upper-right click usually doesn't work, it can even be difficult to get access to the task manager. But it's not a complete freeze, for example the lights on my keyboard can still be turned on and off, mouse probably works. Sometimes waiting a while gets the system back to 'normal'.

I'm really not content !

I've tried the virtual technician, it says everything is OK.

Btw, I have deleted the software that would supposedly 'reset' the original local hosts file, although I still have it bookmarked. (I've deleted the temporary files by now)

By a conservative estimate, I'd give it at least a 98% chance that the saservice.exe issue and the local host issue are related.

At this point, at my expertise level, it seems that I have only two solutions:
completely and permanently remove McAfee (not sure what that would do), or a complete reformat of my harddrive followed by a complete reinstall of Windows XP Home Edition.

Does anyone have any suggestions ?

 

Re: Spy Sweeper, localhost, ssaservice.xe !!!

HostsXpert is a known and reliable piece of software.

 

Let me preface this by saying I have not used Spy Sweeper for awhile now
but when I did it seems to me all that Hosts File Shield Option did was to
monitor the Hosts file for any changes, so using HostsExpert all it did was
restore the original hosts file, it is a reputable host program which lodore
recommended, and lucas verified, and after using HostsExpert if SpySweeper
alerted on the hosts file change just allow it.

Wake