Can anyone explain me what's the difference between this program and the use of the HOST file to block connections to unwanted sites.

The hosts will block named dns queries to a ip address whereas a p2p connection or socket connections may or may not use named dns connections, thus allowing a direct IP connection even if that "host" is blocked in your HOSTS file. this and PG2 will block the IP alltogether based on who owns the IP block of addresses.

host file could help block outgoing connections to a host that is specified by its IP address.
This is intended to block inbound connections from internet addresses as specified by IP address, though urls probably get converted to IP addresses via DNS lookup so it can block those as well (unless you have the address in your host file in which case you would likely defeat the purpose of the program)

great Program, its light, updates easy, and works well. It may not be the 'privacy' that a guy needs to use on p2p clients, but its better than not using one at all!

Did anyone realise that the MD5 sum (Win.7, 32 bit) does not match? Plus, that the peerblock tinyurl email doesn't work?
Seems pretty awkward to me ...

Sorry, my bad. I actually compared MD5 and SHA1.

This is a beta version and even the makers say, "They contain newer fixes and features, ones which haven't received enough testing yet to be considered ready for inclusion in a Stable Release.".

You don't know if this program is working...but you'll sure find out if it doesn't work.

@tom - You do know it's working as it logs all blocked requests.

@carbonize: I think tom means you don't know that the programs works because it is doing its job silently, and you will know if it doesn't work because then you're flooded with all nasty stuff it otherwise blocks :-)

PeerBlock Beta is available! 1.0 r484
http://www.peerblock.com/releases/interim-releases/peerblock-1.0.0-r484

Just so you know: V1.1 r518 is the next STABLE release; so, the note above about beta version is not accurate.
Website says:
»Here it is, PeerBlock 1.1, released November 22, 2010!
This is a Stable Release of PeerBlock. It includes many bugfixes and a few new features over our last PeerBlock 1.0 Stable Release, ...«

@Meks: At the date I wrote this [2010-10-22 20:15]
It was new !! Thanks anyway for let us know about updates.

@Wolfghost: I wasn't referring to you, Wolfghost. I was referring to the program description on top that says

»Note: This beta version contains more features but has been less thoroughly tested by the developers. As this program is by nature a security program, some users may wish to use the stable version.«

That would need to be changed.

Reading the FAQs from their website:
"Bear Principle": when running away from an angry bear you don't need to be faster than that bear... you only need to be faster than the guy next to you.
Hahaha!

great software!

i am running x64, and this works perfectly!

of course, you're never 100% safe from nosy ISPs, so i use this in conjunction with IPFilter µpdater, also very light, portable, and stealth.

http://ipfilterupdater.sourceforge.net/

Awesome program. Can function as an adblock and also anti-P2P companies snooping around where they don't belong! Indispensable tool for any serious computer geek.

hey guys..
im using version 1.0+ (r484) BETA and it leaves 2 keys behind in the registry:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_IPFILTERDRIVER
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\IpFilterDriver\Enum

not sure about the stable version.