spybot, the hosts file, and network/system problems.

[BoB]

On Wed, 06 Aug 2003 01:30:59 GMT, "YK" <YKnot@home.invalid> wrote:

>BoB wrote:
>> On Mon, 04 Aug 2003 17:25:10 -0400, siljaline <siljaline@invalid.com>
>> wrote:
>>> On Mon, 04 Aug 2003 16:45:48 -0400, BoB <rhoward30@myrealbox.com>
>>> wrote:
>> Hostess reduces the 112k file to 93k. I assumed this was from dup
>> reduction since this is what the hostess file says:
>>
>> "It stores the hostnames in an indexed database, eliminating
>> duplicates and placing hosts into logical groups that can be ordered for
>> efficiency."
>>
>> Wonder what the reduction is?
>
>HOSTESS removes all comments. Anything after # is removed. The comment
>is only exported to the HOSTS file if you use Groups and the first creation
>information line.

Ah So. Thanks YK.

BoB

[BoB]

On Tue, 05 Aug 2003 20:05:57 -0400, siljaline <siljaline@invalid.com>
wrote:

>On Tue, 05 Aug 2003 13:00:46 -0400, BoB <rhoward30@myrealbox.com> wrote:
>
>>Hostess reduces the 112k file to 93k. I assumed this was from dup
>>reduction since this is what the hostess file says:
>>
>>"It stores the hostnames in an indexed database, eliminating duplicates
>>and placing hosts into logical groups that can be ordered for
>>efficiency."
>>
>>Wonder what the reduction is?
>
>Me too, I'm in cahoots with the guy that puts together that HOSTS file.
>I shall ask the question and get back.
>
>If you use the HOSTS editor and wander down the file, no dupes that I can see.
>Run it intact or reinstall - update yesterday btw -
>http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.zip 8-04-03

I'm incorporating YK's answer into my notes for hostess.
The author may want to do the same. :-)

BoB

[YK]

doug blaisdell wrote:
> It's strange, but I looked in my Admin Tools->Services list, and saw
> only the DHCP client running. There's also a DNS client but no DNS
> server. So, I disabled the DHCP client (this is all on a modem
> connected non networked win2k pro box with the latest updates from
> MS), rebooted, connected to my ISP, but couldn't surf to any pages
> because it couldn't find them. I reenabled the DHCP client, and now it
> can find pages again.
>
> I'm running the hosts file suggested above, but lookups are a bit slow
> now.
>
> So, it doesn't appear that I'm running a DNS server, and my system
> can't find any web pages when the DHCP client is disabled.

I am not familiar with Win2k so I am going by what I know about WinXP.

The DHCP client is what assigns your system its IP address and DNS server IP
address(es). So why your system is slow with the hosts file is a mystery
to me. The DNS experts (ObiWan and NTCanuck) hang out in the GRC.COM
DNS newsgroups.
news://news.grc.com/grc.techtalk.dns should take you there if you are using
Outlook Express. Note: the grc.com newsgroups are not available through
Google Groups.

> "YK" <YKnot@home.invalid> wrote in message
> news:<NUuXa.79510$hOa.31556@news02.bloor.is.net.ca ble.rogers.com>...
>> doug blaisdell wrote:
>>> I like spybot, but be careful about the hosts file additions it
>>> makes
>>> for you in the advanced menu. I added these, and then found that I
>>> couldn't reconnect to the internet, and when I rebooted that my
>>> system
>>> ran impossibly slow (eg. it took 20 minutes to shutdown). I brought
>>> up
>>> the system in Safemode, brought up Spybot, reversed all the
>>> quarantined spyware that it found, and I still had the problem.
>>> Then I
>>> changed the hosts file back to what it was and everything was fine
>>> again. I got an error when I tried to restore the original hosts
>>> file
>>> back via spybot, so I had to do it manually.
>>
>> If you are running Win2K/XP then the DNS Service is causing the
>> problem.
>> It is not needed so set it to manual or disable.
>> If you want a realy fast DNS service then I recommend BIND-PE.
>> http://ntcanuck.com/