Hosts file

[itadakimasu]

I was doing some research for an assignment i'm doing on DNS, and I came across a site about using the hosts file to block web traffic.

I thought it was pretty cool... "There is no place like 127.0.0.1 "

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

It's got a file w\ all sorts of documented adware / virii and other malicious websites. Basically you switch out your hosts file w\ the one they have on this site w\ all these sites and it gives 127.0.0.1 as the location of all these malicious sites, so that if it were trying to open up it would fail because it would be looking on your computer for the web site.

I'd gone over this file before in a class I had but never thought about manipulating it like this. I might start using it at work.

[David75]

yup, it's one of the many ways to protect your comp from threats, eventhough the ad blocking part is even more interresting and the reason why I tried it years ago.

Feel free to tell us what you think of it after using it for a while.

[12345p]

Lol.. I like it. I got tired of waiting for the ad.whatever websites as I was reading Naruto over @ onemanga or mangashare, so every time my firefox "delayed" on an ad site I just added that ad site to my hosts file. Sure sped up my reading ;)

[David75]

I discovered a new addon in firefox, that is complementary with adblock+ and the hosts file trick:
RequestPolicy

What's the function?
It blocks all requests that are external to the webserver you're browsing.
Of course you can define personal rules, the addon comes with predefined rules you can choose from at first setup and after.

For each page you navigate, you can choose to allow all request, or a particular external request with a simple right click and choose.
The addon lets you know easilly if there has been some filtration etc.

It's particularly efficient against webbugs that track your browsing habits. Just remember to clear your cookies before starting the addon, because almost all browsers continue to use old cookies even when you set them up not to use cookies anymore.
So for now my tools:
Firewall
Firefox
Adblock+
RequestPolicy
Hosts file