Hosts vs. Proxomitron

[sponge]

On 16 Sep 2003 22:53:48 -0700, 8192@ny.com (8192) wrote:

>Hello all,
>
>I've been using Proxomitron with WinMe and IE6 (on dial up) for the
>last few weeks and it works well. The only problem is that Proxo
>noticeably slows my browsing down, page loads are slow.
>
>So, I tried installing a Hosts file from :
>http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm and installed NOHTTPD from:
> http://www.cdhk.de/buck/nohttpd/nohttpd.php
>
>Then I disabled active scripting from IE6's security settings. The
>result is no popups, no advertising and the browser loads pages fast.
>
>I would still like to use the other features of Proxo. So, instead of
>using the Hosts file, is there any way to speed up Proxo with an
>optimized configuration file?

HOSTS will likely slow you down. The files out there today are about
450k in size, so if you visit a webpage with a dozen off-site images
and scripts, you'll be going through 5.4 megabytes worth of DNS
lookups. That'll slow things down.

DNSKong is what I recommend. It's like a highly-streamlined HOSTS,
which needs much less updating and is more sure-fired.

Filtering by Proxo, while it will stop a lot of web-based garbage,
will not give full protection. Proxo can only block content or sites
which are configured to use it. That's fine for your browser, but many
applications do not and cannot be configured to run through Proxo --
so no protection. DNSKong (and HOSTS), at least, gives system-wide
protection, regardless of the applications you are running.

Sponge
Sponge's Anti-Spyware Source
www.geocities.com/yosponge

[YoKenny]

sponge wrote:
> On 16 Sep 2003 22:53:48 -0700, 8192@ny.com (8192) wrote:
>
>> Hello all,
>>
>> I've been using Proxomitron with WinMe and IE6 (on dial up) for the
>> last few weeks and it works well. The only problem is that Proxo
>> noticeably slows my browsing down, page loads are slow.
>>
>> So, I tried installing a Hosts file from :
>> http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm and installed NOHTTPD from:
>> http://www.cdhk.de/buck/nohttpd/nohttpd.php
>>
>> Then I disabled active scripting from IE6's security settings. The
>> result is no popups, no advertising and the browser loads pages fast.
>>
>> I would still like to use the other features of Proxo. So, instead of
>> using the Hosts file, is there any way to speed up Proxo with an
>> optimized configuration file?
>
> HOSTS will likely slow you down. The files out there today are about
> 450k in size, so if you visit a webpage with a dozen off-site images
> and scripts, you'll be going through 5.4 megabytes worth of DNS
> lookups. That'll slow things down.

How do you come up with that figure? DNS lookup are very small packets
and if the site is in the HOSTS file then nothing leaves the PC.

> DNSKong is what I recommend. It's like a highly-streamlined HOSTS,
> which needs much less updating and is more sure-fired.

I agree.
http://www.pyrenean.com/dnsk.php

> Filtering by Proxo, while it will stop a lot of web-based garbage,
> will not give full protection. Proxo can only block content or sites
> which are configured to use it. That's fine for your browser, but many
> applications do not and cannot be configured to run through Proxo --
> so no protection. DNSKong (and HOSTS), at least, gives system-wide
> protection, regardless of the applications you are running.
>
> Sponge
> Sponge's Anti-Spyware Source
> www.geocities.com/yosponge

[Robin T Cox]

yosponge@yahoo.com (sponge) wrote in
news:8d76ec03.0309170004.4d48a97b@posting.google.c om:

> DNSKong is what I recommend. It's like a highly-streamlined HOSTS,
> which needs much less updating and is more sure-fired.
>

Agreed 100%. Only drawback is that the DNSKong block lists are not as up to
date as the Hosts ones, despite the efforts of yourself and the Tayga list.

It's handy to be able to use Hostess to merge the best Hosts lists. Even
better, it would be nice to have a script that would convert a Hosts list
into DNSKong format. Although there are conversion scripts for other
formats, eg. here:
http://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/