HOSTS file question

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guinness
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HOSTS file question

#1 Post by guinness »

I am wondering does the system regard http://www.somesite.com the same as somesite.com? If this is the case then I can drastically reduce my HOSTS file.

romulous
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Re: HOSTS file

#2 Post by romulous »

In a simple word, no. You need two separate entries for those.

Ruby
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Re: HOSTS file

#3 Post by Ruby »

guinness wrote:I am wondering does the system regard http://www.somesite.com the same as somesite.com? If this is the case then I can drastically reduce my HOSTS file.
Open Hosts file, add somesite.com, save Hosts file.
Open browser and visit [www.]somesite.com
Rinse & repeat with www added to somesite.com in Hosts file.

~Ruby

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guinness
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Re: HOSTS file

#4 Post by guinness »

romulous wrote:In a simple word, no. You need two separate entries for those.
Thanks.

abacusFanboi
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Re: HOSTS file

#5 Post by abacusFanboi »

I think I have noticed with Proxomitron that if Proxomitron doesn't block the url, but hosts blocks the url, that the browser retries 10 times.
so put the url into adblock or some other blocker might prevent the browser retries, and think of hosts as backup blocker.
but maybe the retries don't matter much.

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guinness
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Re: HOSTS file

#6 Post by guinness »

Proxomitron is old!

Toxteth O'Grady
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Re: HOSTS file

#7 Post by Toxteth O'Grady »

I have stopped using the traditional hosts file, because
1. a large file slows down browsing (at least on my not exactly state of the art system)
2. too many items will be missed, no matter how many entries you add. 10, 20, 30, ... doubleclick items still leaves gazillions of sites uncovered.

I have switched to a local DNS proxy: http://mayakron.altervista.org/support/ ... th=Acrylic
It also uses a hosts file, but this accepts wild-cards. So, for example, *doubleclick* or *.doubleclick.* will block them all, on every site. Based on the log file, I have added about 900 entries to the hosts file. For me it's an effective system and yet lighter than the regular hosts file.

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guinness
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Re: HOSTS file

#8 Post by guinness »

I haven't seen any lag on my system, though I only visit a handful of sites and my connection isn't that slow! I will check out Acrylic, though would rather avoid having a process running in the background just for the sake of a couple of ms here or there.

It should be noted that the link is a little broken.


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Midas
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Re: Acrylic DNS Proxy

#10 Post by Midas »

Current Acrylic version is v0.9.24, released on January 3, 2014.
Changelog:
[*] It is now possible to disable the address cache altogether making Acrylic work as a forwarding-only DNS proxy.
[*] It is now possible to specify query type affinity masks for DNS servers (defining which server is going to resolve requests for particular query types).
P.S.: More HOSTS related info also at http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... hp?t=16794 (for other mayakron programs, see http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... 589#p68589).[/list]

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I am Baas
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Acrylic DNS Proxy Monitor

#11 Post by I am Baas »

Acrylic DNS Proxy Monitor is a frontend monitor for Acrylic DNS Proxy, a free personal DNS proxy server.

C# version. Requires .Net framework v2.0.

http://dev.arqendra.net/index1.php?cat=12#adpm

Image


(Not tested)

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Midas
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Re: Acrylic DNS Proxy Monitor

#12 Post by Midas »

I am Baas wrote:Acrylic DNS Proxy Monitor is a frontend monitor for Acrylic DNS Proxy, a free personal DNS proxy server.
  • Ever tested Acrylic, Baas? Methinks it really deserves an entry at TPFC forums... 8)

    @webfork: just asking, but how about renaming the current topic to be Acrylic official one?

bzl333
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Re: HOSTS file

#13 Post by bzl333 »

i used it awhile ago. the author of the ADP monitor program was kind of a jerk when i suggested some improvements.
Toxteth O'Grady wrote:I have stopped using the traditional hosts file, because
1. a large file slows down browsing (at least on my not exactly state of the art system)
2. too many items will be missed, no matter how many entries you add. 10, 20, 30, ... doubleclick items still leaves gazillions of sites uncovered.

I have switched to a local DNS proxy: http://mayakron.altervista.org/support/ ... th=Acrylic
It also uses a hosts file, but this accepts wild-cards. So, for example, *doubleclick* or *.doubleclick.* will block them all, on every site. Based on the log file, I have added about 900 entries to the hosts file. For me it's an effective system and yet lighter than the regular hosts file.
i use HostsMan and HostsServer currently with ~70,000 entries from various sources and no slowdown on my 5 yr old netbook. only Hosts file i don't use is from hpHosts because its just massive but i use all the others im aware of. ADP + monitor would be a better option if they continued to improve it and the program also allows you to hit DNS servers thru non-standard port like 5353 iirc so that you can bypass some ISP's that are hijacking your DNS requests. only thing is i dont know of any precompiled lists in the wildcard format. the ADP Monitor needs to be improved though, last i checked.

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