Spyware/Adware/unwanted sites

kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
edited January 2005 in Science & Tech
I should have done this awhile ago but I kept forgetting. I think I may have mentioned it before also but at anyrate.

Ad-aware/spy blocker all that shit work pretty good at some things. But there is a better way of stoping them entirely. It's not as easy to manage but it is 100% affective at blocking problem sites.

In windows (all versions) there is a file called Hosts. It's in various spots but in any form of nt it resides in %windir%\system32\drivers\etc

On win98/Me I believe it's in %windir%\

Generally there is only 1 significant line in that file
127.0.0.1 localhost

it's infact the only line that has to be there, but if you add other lines such as:

127.0.0.1 www.websitehere.com

It will stop your machine from being able to open that site. Furthermore if you have spyware already on your machine that is trying to get to that site it, it won't be able to.

There are several precompiled hosts files on the net but this attachment is mine. It's 7000+ lines long of sites you really don't need to go to.

Now it will slighly slow down your computer at boot however really it's not noticable we are talking seconds here if that. Also when you open up your browser it'll be slightly slower also but again seconds here. You can speed it up if you want by editing a service but I'm not going to go into details as I don't find it's worth the hassle.

To use this file grab the attachment (look at it to see what I'm talking about) then just put it in the propper directory and rename it to hosts (without the extension).

Happy blocking.

Comments

  • HawkHawk Fla Icrontian
    edited January 2005
    Well done kryyst, I put this in the Articles section on the front page. :thumbsup:
    I think it will be usful to a great many people.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited January 2005
    No problem such a simple thing and yet it's not well known. Way better to prevent the problems then it is to try and fix them after the fact.
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