....that never seemed to do anything on my machinee.g. block content from the
out of date list of domain names from mvps.org :-)

....WHAT exactly should be the first line in the hosts file

127.0.0.1 localhost

....do i have to change "localhost" to be something to do with my computer
e.g. my computer name , or change it to something to do with my ISP. As
is obvious I don't know anything about networking but, I keep coming back
to the hosts file, and having another fiddle, becuase I would like to block
the banner ads. from bluestreak, doubleclick and tangozebra and so on.

TIA, regards, Richard

p.s. I HAVE got a check in the box "Bypass proxy server for local addresses"
because MY DUN connection has proxy settings:-
http://www-cache.freeserve.com port 8080
http://www-cache.freeserve.com port 8080 in the HTTP: and FTP: slots.