Security via the HOSTS file on Windows

[James SilverWolf† 1]

So, since I didn't see anything like this around, I just thought this might be of use to some Windows folks, for the betterment their general security on the computer.

 

What is the HOSTS file? Well this is a dandy extentionless (no .txt or. anything at the end) File that can be utilized as a work around to "block" malicious or otherwise bothersome sites. Please note that it is not a firewall. It can be edited by notepad, wordpad or a similar text editor, and adding in values is simple. For example:

 

127.0.0.1 annoying.ad-maliciousness.threeletters

 

would redirect any browser requests to connect to that domain to the local computer and return a "404" error page instead. As an additional tip, you can protect the host file from changes to a certain degree by setting it, via the right click "properties" menu, to "read only". (you will have to add a step of unchecking this when you want to add to the HOSTS file, and rechecking it when you are done, but it's not much of a pain.) Lastly, you can add comments to the lines by adding a # sign to denote a comment. For Example:

 

127.0.0.1 annoying.ad-maliciousness.threeletters #important note or comment about the site

 

The following links are provided for adding on to one's own HOSTS file:

 

General help and a downloadable HOSTS file (I think it's better to just add entries manually instead of overwriting with someone else's file, personally.)

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

 

And a very extensive HOSTS file:

http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/

 

Lastly, there is a freeware HOSTS file manager out there, which can be found here: http://www.abelhadigital.com/hostsman As always be sure to check with virustotal.com or your own A.V. program if a file is safe.

 

*Note: You may want to check through the entries in these HOSTS lists for sites you use that may be redirected, and remember that just because ad.artwhatever.threeletters is redirected, doesn't necessarly mean the main domain will be redirected.

[Flechmen 0]

This works under Mac and Linux too.. I don't have a Mac handy to see where the hosts file is there, but its under /etc/hosts on linux