BleepingComputer.com: HOSTS websites

i ws watching a youtube vid and this guy ws talking bout putting this websites in your host file so that they cant contact u. Is this tru or wat? The name of the youtube vid is 6 Steps To making your Pc More Secure, the part that im talking about is around the 2:29 mins. The website is www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.txt. dont click on the link bc he spelled it uncorrectly. And will this work for xp?

Yes it works for XP. See here: http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

All modern operating systems, even many internet-capable cell phones, have a HOSTS file. The hosts file is the first place the operating system looks when trying to resolve a domain name (like www.bleepingcomputer.com) into an IP address (like 208.43.87.2). If the domain isn't found in the hosts file, then your computer does what's known as a DNS (Domain Name System) query.

Some people add the domains of known ad-serving websites, spyware-related websites, and other nasties to their hosts file but instead point the domain at a bogus IP address. The most common IP to use is 127.0.0.1, which is the IP address that the computer uses to refer to itself.

Here's an excerpt from my hosts file (automatically generated by Spybot Seardh&Destroy):

127.0.0.1	www.6700.cn
127.0.0.1	6700.cn
127.0.0.1	www.680180.net
127.0.0.1	680180.net
127.0.0.1	www.69loadz.com
127.0.0.1	69loadz.com
127.0.0.1	www.6sek.com
127.0.0.1	6sek.com
127.0.0.1	www.70-music.com
127.0.0.1	70-music.com
127.0.0.1	www.7322.com
127.0.0.1	7322.com
127.0.0.1	www.745970.com
127.0.0.1	745970.com
127.0.0.1	75tz.com
127.0.0.1	www.777search.com
127.0.0.1	777search.com
127.0.0.1	www.777top.com
127.0.0.1	777top.com
127.0.0.1	www.7939.com
127.0.0.1	7939.com
127.0.0.1	80gw6ry3i3x3qbrkwhxhw.032439.com
127.0.0.1	www.80-music.com
127.0.0.1	80-music.com

All those websites, along with 10,922 others, are essentially blacklisted and cannot be reached from my system thanks to a rather large hosts file.

Further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_file

Amazing Andrew, on Jul 24 2009, 02:47 AM, said:

so does this blcok the sites that give u pop ups? or just malware?

This method can block or redirect any site whatsoever. The trick is to know which sites to block. This method is also not effective against sites that may change their domain names often (which malware sites often do). As I mentioned, Spybot Search & Destroy will automatically add (and update) a large blacklist to your hosts file.

All modern web browsers block popups and so they are dying out as an effective advertisement scheme. If you are getting a lot of popus then you may need to upgrade your browser to a more modern version. If you are getting popups even when you're not browsing the internet then you may be infected with some sort of adware or other malicious software. We can help with that too.