lucat bene, der Mike Meyer <invalid@address.invalid> goh, a hunnert
truxx inero, sumwit kowz n' sumwit duxx on Thu, 04 Sep 2003 00:09:13
-0500:

>I'm cross-posting this to 5 newsgroups with follow-ups set to
>alt.privacy.spyware. Feel free to override the follow-up if you don't
>visit alt.privacy.spyware...
>
>Within the last few days, my ad-blocking Hosts file has been mentioned
>in these newsgroups--hence why I'm posting now. I've recently updated
>it, and you can find the new version (September 1, 2003) at
>http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/get_hosts.html
>
>In the July version, there were entries which prevented WindowsUpdate
>from functioning properly--those have been removed since the August 15
>update. I've also been spending a LOT of time weeding out other "false
>positives." Using the Hosts file at
>http://asp.flaaten.dk/proxo/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=20 as a reference, I've
>kept all entries that both my Hosts file and the Proxo Hosts file had in
>common... everything else I've been double-checking by hand, even
>removing some false positives that were also in the Proxo Hosts file
>(namely, stats.distributed.net and many foreign MSN addresses). It's a
>very time-consuming and boring process (I only manage to check about 100
>addresses per hour, using a very quick Google search) but I hope now
>that my Hosts file is of much better quality and less hassle for all
>those that use it. For those people that had trouble with WindowsUpdate
>during the Blaster worm, I sincerely apologize.
>
>If you suspect that the Hosts file is preventing a site that you visit
>from working properly, you can verify it by "turning off" (renaming) the
>Hosts file manually or by using HostsToggle
>(http://accs-net.com/hosts/HostsToggle/) If you can visit the site
>while the Hosts file is turned "off" but not while it's "on", please
>email me at mjmeyer@myrealbox.com with the URL you're trying to access,
>so I can figure out which Hosts entry is causing the problem and remove
>it. Also: if you are using a large Hosts file on Windows 2000/XP, you
>should turn off the DNS Client service, otherwise your Internet surfing
>will be slowed down, rather than sped up!
>
>I've also seen people mention on these newsgroups over the last couple
>weeks that HostsToggle somehow "corrupted" their Hosts file. I don't
>know what could be causing that... Some people claim that the Hosts
>file must be named "HOSTS" (in call caps) in order to work, and
>HostsToggle doesn't keep the case. While I have a hard time believing
>this rumor, the next version of HostsToggle will make sure that HOSTS is
>capitalized correctly. Other than that, the only thing which might make
>HostsToggle give you grief is if you run it on Windows NT/2000/XP
>without having write permission to the %windir%\System32\Drivers\Etc
>folder. If you know how to modify NTFS permissions, you can change
>them; otherwise you need to run HostsToggle as a local administrator.
>If anyone has problems with HostsToggle, please let me know, with as
>much detail as possible. I can't fix what I don't know!
>
>Thank you,
>
no, thank YOU!

--
fruit flies when you're having fun.