New to Proxomitron

[Oddysey]

Jaded_Goth;

Not sure just what I should clarify here.......

Lemme 'splain what the HOSTS file actually does. (Ralph, if you're lurking, turn off your sense of wonder for a bit, OK? )

In essence, the HOSTS file is a mini-DNS. You all know that a DNS is a server that resolves alphabetical addresses into numerical ones, those with the familiar xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx grouping. But why do we even have this kind of file in the first place? Good question.

In the early days of computers and networks, accessing a DNS over a modem, at wild and dangerous speeds ranging up to an electron-shattering 2400 baud, it was not desireable to spend time just to find that numerical address. So it was that network engineers devised a scheme for allowing users to store commonly accessed addresses right on their individual machines.

Back then, users were called clients, and servers were called hosts. Hence the HOSTS file was so named for obvious reasons. Within it, we found the alphabetical name, and either a comma or at least one space, and the appropriate numerical address. (That delimiter was dependent on what OS was in use.) Back then, you'd easily see things like: (BTW, these are current and valid, so don't go there unless you really wish to.)

gopher://h1.jpl.nasa.gov/ 137.78.160.180
wais://lcs.mit.edu/ 18.26.0.36

and so on and so forth.

Now, I can't speak as to how long it was before some enterprising soul thought of it, and put it into use, but soon enough after the HOSTS file concept was introduced, somebody "tinkered" with it (as a prank, according to historical sources), and inserted 127.0.0.1 after all the entries. <span style='color:red'>Presto - instant pandemonium!</span> That user was effectively locked out of every remote computer he normally accessed. The sysadmin was able to deduce what happened in short order, and logged the "fault".

(EDIT: Why was that user locked out? Shame on you for not reading my previous post. When the computer resolved an address via the HOSTS file, it no longer needed to access a remote machine for DNS services. The computer found no problems, it was only doing as instructed. It was the user who "perceived" an error - thanks to the prankster.)

About the same time, two clowns lawyers, both having experienced the power of email during their school days, and desiring immortal infamy, cross-posted a news-group advertisement for their business. (Follow this link for more history, I've only touched on it.) This was sent to several thousand such news-groups, which in turn probably hit more than a half-million people, right between their collective eyes. Such was the hue and cry across the land, oy vey! And system admins, almost immediately, blacklisted the lawyer's host server - partially to protect themselves in case some spam-haters might reply with nasty threats of dire consequences (there were a few that got through, and made a splash in the news), and partly to forestall bandwidth swamping.

How did they do that, you ask? You already know, don't you. (No answer required.) The HOSTS file was modified to prohibit that domain from being accessed by the user. The entry? Your friend and mine - localhost. And the rest, as they say, is history.

~~~~~~~~
Lemme now speak to the modern versions of most HOSTS files found today.

All the HOSTS files I've seen on the 'Net in the last several years are aimed at preventing you from visiting websites, not resolving addresses more quickly than a remote DNS machine. Several such files abound, and a_s_b's is no different, except for size(!) Personally, I have no complaint about that, it's none of my business. Only some folks add sites to a HOSTS file for some of the flimsiest of reasons - "I saw an ad there, once." I mean, come on, let it go already. Did you kill your TV because you once saw an ad.... oh, wait... I did kill my TV for that very reason. Never mind. Carry on. [blush]

The point is, just be aware that some lists are overly zealous in preventing sites from being viewed. The other side of that coin is, you ("the user") can modify the file on your machine. Did you find an entry that's blocking access to your favorite site? No sweat, GI - remove it! Just beware that you may have to reboot your machine in order to force the OS to reload the file (some OS'es are not so finicky). Other than that, you're off to the races!

Was this helpful for you? If not, please don't shoot the forum administrator - he had no clue I was gonna do this, I swear!

(Ralph - switch "sense of wonder" back on now.)


Oddysey

[disclaimer]
The opinions expressed herein were formed solely by the author, after due deliberation and consideration for the feelings of the weasels lawyers mentioned above. That period of cogitation lasted just long enough to pop a top again, and they were toast. (The jerkoffs lawyers' feelings, not the bozos lawyers themselves. That is, if you believe that buttwipes lawyers have feelings. :o :P [rolleyes] [lol])
[/disclaimer]