Ok, I will be the first to admit that I am completly over my head on most of what follows... I have a new boss... and I (lucky me ) am in charge of "fixing" the security problems that are existing on the computer we use daily. He had downloaded several programs, all free, spyware adware zonealarm, castlecops to name a few. I recently installed/downloaded a host file... i have several questions to anyone who is familiar with these. for one thing I'm still confused as to how I view the thing... how to add or remove things from the file... basic maintenance etc (clueless ) Also we have a pop up blocker that i dont know how to turn off or modify to allow me to view certain sites that are "blocked"... We have netscape 8.1 browser... before this browser I had the 7.2 (i think) version and there was an area on the toolbar to turn off the pop up blocker and now on the updated version i cant figure it out... ANY info or help with anything would be SO helpful... theres alot of programs on here.. I dont even know where to start or if we need all of them even.

Thanks for any help!
The Desperate new assistant

The Hosts file is more of a legacy of early IP networks and was never really designed for large-scale blocking of unwanted sites. IE-Spyad, SpywareBlaster and Peer Guardian are better alternatives for blacklisting outbound connections.

Hosts File FAQS: http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hostsfaq.htm

How to Use a Hosts File:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial51.html
http://castlecops.com/article-5660-nested-0-0.html

Blocking Unwanted Sites with a Hosts File
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Editor's Note posted at mvps.org: In most cases a large HOSTS file (over 135 kb) tends to slow down the machine. This only occurs in W2000 and XP. Windows 98 and ME are not affected.
(scroll down the page about halfway)

LOCATION OF HOSTS FILE:
Windows XP = C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC\hosts
Windows 2K = C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC\hosts
Win 98*Grinler = C:\WINDOWS\hosts

These files are normally located in the ETC folder:
hosts
lmhosts.sam
networks
protocol
services

To block a site with the HOSTS file, browse to its location and open in notepad.

Under "127.0.0.1 localhost" add 127.0.0.1 www.name_of_the_site_to block.com.

If you'd like to block www.hotporn.com, text would look like this:
127.0.0.1 www.hotporn.com

Example HOSTS file: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/misc/hosts