HOSTS File

Thx for the tip, no, I don't, running only WinXP and Win98SE machines.

Would it fit to a LAN using its own DNS server ?

Rgds,

 

That, I don't know, I've never tried that scenario. Sorry.

 

Scotcov, in Outpost the DNS cache stores IPs that have been resolved already for future use. It is used to speed up surfing and it works well for me.
When you type in www.xyz.com, your computer has to go to a DNS server and look up xyz.com and translate that to a numerical value it can use such as 123.345.456.789. It takes time to do this.
So Outpost allows you to set a number limit on the amount of resolved IPs you want to store in the Outpost DNS Cache and when you type in xyz.com the next time, it looks in the cache first and if it finds the address has already been resolved, it will use that, instead of going to the DNS server and looking it up again.
Little clearer?

 

First place Windows looks up is still the hostfile before anything else

 

Hi MickeyTheMan,
"First place Windows looks up is still the hostfile before anything else". Fascinating!
This implies that using hosts is quicker than using an app to DNS Cache. Is it a matter of milliseconds, or more?

Scotcov

 

Here is a concrete example :
Becky's forum will be changing servers on Nov 3rd wich involves an ip change.
It may take up to a week (hopefully not more) before dns servers have applied the change.
Usual way to access is www.morelerbe.com ( which gets converted to 66.119.216.59)
Unless one includes new ip in hostfile at that time, that site may be unacessible since dns servers won't be able to resolve to new ip (66.228.209.59).
And no program will be able to include this in their cache either since they need to have already got it from dns server to do so.
Does that make it clearer ?

 

I truly believe I understand the mechanics of this. Root's question made me question my understanding, but I do think I understand. Outpost does the same thing as the hosts file in the section named DNS Cache.
So, if windows automatically looks 1st at the host file, it implies that it is quicker than if it had to look 1st at hosts, then Outpost.
Am I totally missing something here?

 

You are not missing anything.
Reason Outpost does it is because most people don't make effective use of hostfile.
Only recently were they made aware of blocking capabilities with programs such as spyblocker.
But many still don't fully appreciate the fact that the host file is not just a blocking facility, but can also be used for faster dns resolve by for instance adding favourites.

 

It sure seems like an incredible tool. And no bloat!

Thanks,
Scotcov