About Your Host File
Imagine clicking your bookmark and seeing a completely different Web site
load in your browser--or trying to go to Google and getting a totally
different search site. Some spyware redirects Web addresses on your
computer by altering your hosts file.
Normally when you type in a Web address or load a bookmark, it's a
plain-English URL, such as
www.download.com.
However, computers can't understand URLs, so they have to find a
corresponding numeric IP address. Your computer first looks for a URL
match in your hosts file, a simple text file in your system directory
that lists various IP addresses and their corresponding URLs. If it
doesn't find a match there, it looks for a domain name system (DNS) on
the Internet, which lists all the URLs currently out there and their
corresponding IP addresses. Malicious coders can hijack this process by
inserting false references into your hosts file.
We're going to show you how to keep your hosts file safe from spyware, so
you can be confident your browser takes you where you want to
go.
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Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware
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Step 1: Make it read-only
First, we're going to tell you how to find your hosts file, since its
location varies on different versions of Windows. The file's name is
simply hosts, with no extension. We don't recommend you make any changes
to it unless you know exactly what you're doing. In Windows XP, the hosts
file should be in this directory path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC.
For Windows 2000, look for it here: C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC. And in
Windows 98 and Me, this is the appropriate path: C:\WINDOWS.
A reliable way to locate the hosts file is to install HijackThis. Once
you do, click the "Open the Misc Tools section" button on the
main interface, then click the "Open hosts file manager" button
in the System Tools section. The directory path for your hosts file
appears at the top of the editor window.
Once you've located your hosts file, a quick and easy way to lock it down
is to make it a read-only file. Simply right-click the file and choose
Properties from the context menu. Click the read-only check box at the
bottom of the Properties window, then click OK. Remember that you made it
read-only, because in the future you may need to temporarily allow
changes for some program installs.
Step 2: Patrol your hosts file
For an easier way to manage and lock your hosts file, download and
install WinPatrol. This program manages many aspects of your computer,
such as which programs load when you start up your computer and what
add-ons Internet Explorer uses. After you install WinPatrol, launch the
program and click the Options tab in its main interface. Click the check
box that says "Lock hosts file" and you're protected. If you
click the "View hosts file" button, it will open in Notepad. By
default, WinPatrol watches for programs that try to change your hosts
file. It will alert you if something changes the file, giving you the
opportunity to block the change. If you don't recognize the name of a
program that's trying to change hosts, you should probably block
it.
Step 3: Edit entries
Many popular antispyware applications also give you some control over
your hosts file. For example, both Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware and
CounterSpy show you what's in your hosts file and let you block and
remove specific entries. In the main interface of Microsoft AntiSpyware,
click the Advanced Tools button. In CounterSpy, it's the System Tools
button. On the next screen, click the System Explorers button in
Microsoft AntiSpyware or the My PC Explorers button in CounterSpy. From
the directory tree on the left side of the next screen in both programs,
click Windows Host File. If no changes have ever been made to your hosts
file, the only entry you will see is localhost
127.0.0.1. If you see additional
entries, especially for well-known Web sites, you may want to block or
remove them.
Step 4: Block ads
Our last step is for advanced users only: You can use your hosts file
to redirect adware company servers so your PC will never see ads from
them. Around the Web, people have compiled lists of ad servers and put
them into the hosts file format, redirecting the ad servers to
127.0.0.1, the IP address for your
own computer. You can get one of these hosts files and replace your own
with it. Unfortunately, most of them block all known ad servers, which
could deprive your favorite Web site of revenue from banner ads. If you
use one of these ad-blocking hosts files and notice ads are being blocked
from a Web site you like, you should find that ad-server entry in your
hosts file and remove it.
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