Hosts

halo2_god

I made this topic becuase i was trying to goto the AVG website. When i went there it would say access to this is page forbidden. So i tried a few things like a PROXY it worked but one problem was solved getting to the site. But it still confused me i saw my ZA running i was like that could be the problem because i have heard of suite programs messing with other anti virus/spyware aplications. I turned it off ended all running aplications attached to it in the backround. Still would not work so i sent an IM to a friend of mine and he told me to check my hosts files. so i went to Start> My computer > :C > windows > system 32 > drivers > ECT > then i opend hosts with notepad and saw it say 127.0.0.1 then the website and i told him what i saw... And after 10 mins he said i was screwd so i removed it opend cmd and typed ipconfig /flushdns and did what he said now my computer is all clean but i was wondering how do forward a page. insted of just block it. For security purpsoes... And what else could be done with this hosts file? Thanks all.

kryyst

The only line you must have in your hosts file is

127.0.0.1 localhost

that line absolutely must be there. Anything else is optional. The hosts file used to be used in the old days for local intranet stuff. But now we have domain name servers that generally can take care of all that business. Now what some people do is put extra lines in their hosts file to block unwanted websites. So if you put in 127.0.0.1 www.spyware.com your computer couldn't get to www.spyware.com.

Now if I were you I'd be concerned that I have a virus. Normally nothing will touch your hosts file, except some viruses that add lines to block you from getting to anti-virus sites to remove them. Deleting lines out of it won't remove the virus it's just a temporary patch and flushing the dns certainly won't remove any viruses.

Tex

halo2_god wrote:

I made this topic becuase i was trying to goto the AVG website. When i went there it would say access to this is page forbidden. So i tried a few things like a PROXY it worked but one problem was solved getting to the site. But it still confused me i saw my ZA running i was like that could be the problem because i have heard of suite programs messing with other anti virus/spyware aplications. I turned it off ended all running aplications attached to it in the backround. Still would not work so i sent an IM to a friend of mine and he told me to check my hosts files. so i went to Start> My computer > :C > windows > system 32 > drivers > ECT > then i opend hosts with notepad and saw it say 127.0.0.1 then the website and i told him what i saw... And after 10 mins he said i was screwd so i removed it opend cmd and typed ipconfig /flushdns and did what he said now my computer is all clean but i was wondering how do forward a page. insted of just block it. For security purpsoes... And what else could be done with this hosts file? Thanks all.

You were attacked by a virus or spyware that attempted to block you from getting virus updates.....

Use spybot. use their hosts file updates (they add a ton of entries to the host file that block you from dangerous sites) and make the host file read only after that.

halo2_god

Umm one thing i already got it cleaned out as i said before i didnt want to add evry little step..
But befor my friend left he said there is much more you can do with it. And i was wondering what else can you do with it other then block sites

Tex

You were told up above??? Not much else for a home user on a windows workgroup.

At work on a domain or with Linux you direct your computer to servers. The servers are all in there with their IP address's. It is resolving names or url's with actual IP address's. Thats a VERY simple way of explaining it but........

At home you just block the spyware sites MOSt (not all) the time.

I KNOW you edited the file manually and fixed that entry. What I suggested was to add all the additional known bad sites (there are thousands) and make that host file read only to keep this from happening again.

Cheers

Tex