Who is using this Hosts file?

General Topics
1

Hi malware fighters,

Stumbled onto this site: http://www.hosts-file.net/

Who of you uses the hosts file from that site?

polonus

2

That is Steven Burn’s HOSTS file that I use along with MVPS HOSTS file:
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

With a large HOST file a couple of situations have to be taken into consideration:

1: The DNS Client service has to reload the HOSTS file for every browser startup and this can slow down opening the browser.
The DNS Client service is not needed unless the system is part of a corporate network with Active Directory:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/directory/activedirectory/default.mspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318803

  1. Every URL needs to be converted into an IP address and this is done by a DNS lookup that uses either the HOSTS file or the system’s DNS servers provided by your ISP or other DNS servers.

Fortunately HostsMan provides a solution to both situations with HostsMan disabling DNS Client service and HostsServer providing a local proxy to look up entries in the HOSTS file:
http://www.abelhadigital.com