Setting up a Hosts File

[Blackspear]

1) Download a Hosts file from Bluetack or elsewhere.

2) Make sure you can view file extensions on your computer. Click on My Computer> Tools> Folder Options. Untick everything as per screenshot and then click on Apply.

3) Go to where the Hosts file is located in Windows XP; C Drive> Windows> System32> Drivers> Etc

4) Delete your existing “Hosts” file and replace it with the new one that you downloaded from Bluetack.

5) Right Click on the new file and rename it to HOSTS – without the “.txt” file extension.

[Blackspear]

Windows XP Users.


1) Right Click on “My Computer”

2) Click on “Manage”

3) Click on “Services”

4) Scroll down to "DNS Client"

5) Right-click and select: “Properties”

6) Click the drop-down arrow for "Startup type"

7) Select “Manual” or “Disable”

8 ) Click Apply – Ok

9) Restart your computer.

[Blackspear]

Your hosts file is located as per screenshot.

Cheers

[gerardwil]

Hi Blackspear,

Good topic.
But I just wonder why your host file is that big? Mine is about 240K (mpvs).
Cheers,

Gerard

[AvianFlux]

hpHOSTS file is more thorough. Close to a MB of URLs are filtered.

[Blackspear]

Originally Posted by gerardwil

I just wonder why your host file is that big? Mine is about 240K (mpvs).

Hi Gerard, I use Bluetack due to the reasons in this thread. It is basically coming from 4 very good sources.

Hope this helps...

Cheers

[Blackspear]

Originally Posted by AvianFlux

hpHOSTS file is more thorough. Close to a MB of URLs are filtered.

Bluetack has 1.2MB It's not the size that I am concernd about, it's the quality...

Cheers

[bellgamin]

It's all so manual. Download the file. Position it. Unzip it. Delete the old. Rename the new. Doing this daily is a bit of a task.

Maybe this is a good area for someone to write a program to automatically update one's HOSTS file, & also to protect the HOSTS file from being changed without a password.

I would pay a reasonable amount of $$$ for such a program. Does one exist?

[gerardwil]

Originally Posted by Blackspear

Hi Gerard, I use Bluetack due to the reasons in this thread. It is basically coming from 4 very good sources.

Hope this helps...

Cheers

Thanks Blackspear, that looks pretty solid
I unzipped it to my etc.
Cheers,

Gerard

[toadbee]

It's all so manual. Download the file. Position it. Unzip it. Delete the old. Rename the new. Doing this daily is a bit of a task.

Maybe this is a good area for someone to write a program to automatically update one's HOSTS file, & also to protect the HOSTS file from being changed without a password.

I would pay a reasonable amount of $$$ for such a program. Does one exist?

Wild Bell - well this isn't totally automated... but will probably help you out and it doesn't cost a dime! It's another crazy toad, I know him well - and I'm sure he'd be delighted to have you try his program out

http://www.funkytoad.com/hoster.htm

Originally Posted by bellgamin

I would pay a reasonable amount of $$$ for such a program. Does one exist?

There are a few free options, but you would still have to DL the the newer version of what ever Hosts(s) you used, and unzip them/it, then use a combination of these tools to easily manage them, ie, merge them, and delete the dupes. Here are a few options: (while not one of these tools does everything, they are all quite useful to use and have on board)

Hostman either 1.0 or 2.0 beta - http://pwp.netcabo.pt/0413933601/abelha.html
Hostess - http://accs-net.com/hostess/
Hoster - by Gladiators (toadbee) - http://www.funkytoad.com/hoster.htm -or- http://forum.gladiator-antivirus.com...howtopic=21818 - for a Direct Download - www.funkytoad.com/download/hoster.zip
Host toggle - http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/HostsToggle/

Myself, I prefer to manage/create my own hosts file, which I section into the various sources including my own personal list, sort it alphabetically removing dupes etc. ( I use excel to sort each source, compile them manually using # start of blank blank Hosts file entries, date etc. & #end of blank blank Hosts entries to form the sections, then use Hostman to delete the dupes) then set hosts to read only (I guess that's the short version of it (my process). My file is rather large and there isn't much need to update it too often, which I only do 3 or 4 times a year, but I do update it as required when new threats emerge such as the latest with the google misspelling.

Sorry to ramble on

Steve

[bellgamin]

@ toadbee & dog

Thanks for the links. Hoster & Host Toggle are grrrrreat.

@ Blackspear & the rest of you

Once I loaded bluetack's HOSTS file, I was unable thereafter to access cnn.com -- the News channel's website. I checked the bluetack listing -- cnn.com is definitely in the off-limits file!!!

AFAIK cnn.com is absolutely straight-arrow. Is the black-balling of CNN some sort of a political statement by them, or an accident, or what... I wonder?

[Blackspear]

Originally Posted by bellgamin

AFAIK cnn.com is absolutely straight-arrow. Is the black-balling of CNN some sort of a political statement by them, or an accident, or what... I wonder?

Best to ask that in their forum, it could be due to a redirect. In Australia HPGuru's list blocks ninemsn.com.au due to a redirect, it is probably the largest website used in Oz...

Sometimes there will be a little tweaking to do with a hosts file to get it to how you like it. I use Bluetacks Hosts Manager to make the file “Read Only” and have the ability to bypass the hosts file with a single click if need be...

Cheers

[Trooper]

Thanks for the thread Blackspear. I have been using the MVPS one for quite some time but after seeing this one, I am hooked.

Is it just me or is the date on the Bluetack hosts file like 1601!?

Regards,

Jag

[bellgamin]

Originally Posted by Blackspear

Best to ask that in their forum, it could be due to a redirect.

I'm registered at that forum but I just can't take the slow loads. I'm on broadband in Hawaii, but it still takes ~45 seconds to scroll down a a page in bluetack's forum. My daughter in Texas is on dial-up & tried to visit bluetack on 3 different days. She reports it took an average of almost 2 minutes for one of their pages to load.

Their downloads of the hosts file are nice & fast, however.

[Trooper]

Wow that is strange. That page loads up pretty quick here for me. Did you run a traceroute to that site?

[bellgamin]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

Wow that is strange. That page loads up pretty quick here for me. Did you run a traceroute to that site?

I tried. It times-out (code 11010). I think bluetack might have a block against pings & tracerts. If so... for obvious reasons.

Also, what I have reference to (when I speak of slowness) is trying to read a thread of multiple posts on Bluetack's forum. Scrolling down to read comments is agonizingly slow & jerky. I think this may be partly caused by the fact that they allow folks to use incredibly humongous avatars & banner-sized signature images.

For example, I checked one of Bluetack's average-sized forum pages (many pages are MUCH larger) -- the page at THIS location.

Example: poster named Kimberly uses an avatar that is 150X150 22K, & a signature banner image that is 580X130 62.3K.

Analysis of that page by Webmaster's tool site shows that page to be 285651 bytes of which 272657 bytes are used for avatars & signature banners. Below are the download times for that page. Notice that (even with a good connection) it will take nearly one minute to load that single page @ 56K, & TWO minutes at 28K. With their present connection, however, it takes me about 30 seconds to load that page using roadrunner. NOT my cup of tea, thank you.

Connection Rate Download Time
14.4K 221.59 seconds
28.8K 110.90 seconds
33.6K 95.08 seconds
56K 57.13 seconds

[Bubba]

Nice job BS

Couple of comments:
1)For Windows 9X users....Hosts file located C:\Windows
2)As for "DNS Client"....dramatic slow downs for Win2000 users also if that service is not disabled or placed on Manual.

The Hosts File and what it can do for you

[Blackspear]

Originally Posted by Bubba

Nice job BS

Couple of comments:
1)For Windows 9X users....Hosts file located C:\Windows
2)As for "DNS Client"....dramatic slow downs for Win2000 users also if that service is not disabled or placed on Manual.

The Hosts File and what it can do for you

Thanks Bubba, and thanks for clarifying things with other operating systems.

Cheers

Originally Posted by Blackspear

5) Right Click on the new file and rename it to HOSTS – without the “.txt” file extension.

Hi
open in notepad
file>save as> choose allfiles from popup window then "HOSTS"in the file name
BUT still in notepad icon it suppose to change to windows default icon
is there another way. thanks

ie what is the file extention HOSTS dot what

HOSTS.

[Bubba]

Originally Posted by hadi

ie what is the file extention HOSTS dot what

There is no file extension.

What is the Hosts file?

"NOTE: Hosts is the name of the hosts file and not another directory name. It does not have an extension (extensions are the .exe, .txt, .doc, etc. endings to filenames) and so appears to be another directory in the example above."

Originally Posted by Bubba

There is no file extension.

What is the Hosts file?

"NOTE: Hosts is the name of the hosts file and not another directory name. It does not have an extension (extensions are the .exe, .txt, .doc, etc. endings to filenames) and so appears to be another directory in the example above."

OK BUT after changing the name shouldnt its icon changes to windows default one. I asked because, I dont have option 6 and 7 on BS first Image

[Bubba]

Originally Posted by hadi

after changing the name shouldnt its icon changes to windows default one.

Yes it should

I dont have option 6 and 7 on BS first Image

Hmmm....those selections are available for Win9X and any NT based OS(2000\XP). What OS are you using

Hi Bubba

after changing the name
notepad file>save as> choose allfiles from popup window then "HOSTS"in the file name clicking save (it saves it again as a txt file)

OS: XPSP2 Finnish IE6
Thanks