HOSTS file questions

Win98 SE
IE 5.0
Using proxy server at 8080 as Localhost
Windows Directory is C:\WIN98REL1

I have put the HOSTS file in my windows directory which is named WIN98REL1.
It does contain an entry for the URL ads.peel.com .

I checked by calling up "The Drudge Report" knowing that URL usually results
in pop-up ads, and i got one of those "you have won" pop-ups from
ads.peel.com.etc.etc

Does the HOSTS file have to reside in a C:\WINDOWS directory? That is, does
the directory have to be named that?

Does the existence of the main name.domain.suffix block all URLS from that
main name.domain.suffix?

The HOSTS file entry is: 127.0.0.1 ads.peel.com

(The HOSTS file was downloaded from http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
No changes were made, I simply unzipped the HOSTS file to c:\WIN98REL1 )

Thanks,

FACE

Courtesy of Jim Eshelman. It would be worth checking the affected machine's
registry.

The location of the default HOSTS file is stored in your Windows Registry at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Tcpip\Parameters in the
value DataBasePath.

The default value is %SystemRoot% in Windows 95, 98, or ME, but can be
changed by changing the Registry value.


--
Hyperlinks are used to ensure advice remains current
_______________________________________
Sandi - Microsoft MVP since 1999 (IE/OE)
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/





FACE wrote:
Win98 SE
IE 5.0
Using proxy server at 8080 as Localhost
Windows Directory is C:\WIN98REL1

I have put the HOSTS file in my windows directory which is named
WIN98REL1. It does contain an entry for the URL ads.peel.com .

I checked by calling up "The Drudge Report" knowing that URL usually
results in pop-up ads, and i got one of those "you have won" pop-ups
from ads.peel.com.etc.etc

Does the HOSTS file have to reside in a C:\WINDOWS directory? That
is, does the directory have to be named that?

Does the existence of the main name.domain.suffix block all URLS from
that main name.domain.suffix?

The HOSTS file entry is: 127.0.0.1 ads.peel.com

(The HOSTS file was downloaded from
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm No changes were made, I simply
unzipped the HOSTS file to c:\WIN98REL1 )

Thanks,

FACE

Thanks for the reply.

I looked in the registry (via REGEDIT) under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Tcpip\
and that key value was not there.

I exported the registry to a 6.87megabyte file and searched within that file
for tcpip -- finding one instance of that literal under:
[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Iarsn\TaskInfo2003\Sc rean]
the value being: "ShowTCPIP"=dword:00000001
(For what that is worth....)

There were no other instances of tcpip in the file.

However relevant this may be, I also searched for HOSTS and found
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\VxD\MSTCP
"LMHostFile"="C:\\WIN98R~1\\lmhosts"

and,

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\VxD\MSTCP\ServiceProvider]

"HostsPriority"=hex:f4,01,00,00

and under:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\InstalledFiles]

are the hosts.sam and lmhosts.sam files. (samples)

ALSO,

The literal value of %SystemRoot% does not occur in the exported registry
file. Is that a system variable?


FACE


On Wed, 29 Sep 2004 19:45:02 +0800, "Sandi - Microsoft MVP"
in microsoft.public.win98.internet wrote:

Courtesy of Jim Eshelman. It would be worth checking the affected machine's
registry.

The location of the default HOSTS file is stored in your Windows Registry at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servi ces\Tcpip\Parameters in the
value DataBasePath.

The default value is %SystemRoot% in Windows 95, 98, or ME, but can be
changed by changing the Registry value.

Look for HOSTS.SAM in your Windows directory. Yes,
microsoft.com should block www.microsoft.com and
support.microsoft.com. Try using only the domain name and
the suffix; not the subdomain as well.

Don't bother with HOSTS.SAM. It is simply a sample file that is not even
used unless the SAM extension is removed.

--
_______________________________________
Hyperlinks used to ensure advice is current
Sandi - Microsoft MVP since 1999 (IE/OE)
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org

"Travis Swift" wrote in message
...
Look for HOSTS.SAM in your Windows directory. Yes,
microsoft.com should block www.microsoft.com and
support.microsoft.com. Try using only the domain name and
the suffix; not the subdomain as well.

Try creating the key in question.

%systemroot% is simply a generic way of writing, for example, c:\windows.

--
_______________________________________
Hyperlinks used to ensure advice is current
Sandi - Microsoft MVP since 1999 (IE/OE)
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org

"FACE" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the reply.

I looked in the registry (via REGEDIT) under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Tcpip\
and that key value was not there.

I exported the registry to a 6.87megabyte file and searched within that
file
for tcpip -- finding one instance of that literal under:
[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Iarsn\TaskInfo2003\Sc rean]
the value being: "ShowTCPIP"=dword:00000001
(For what that is worth....)

There were no other instances of tcpip in the file.

However relevant this may be, I also searched for HOSTS and found
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\VxD\MSTCP
"LMHostFile"="C:\\WIN98R~1\\lmhosts"

and,

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\VxD\MSTCP\ServiceProvider]

"HostsPriority"=hex:f4,01,00,00

and under:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\InstalledFiles]

are the hosts.sam and lmhosts.sam files. (samples)

ALSO,

The literal value of %SystemRoot% does not occur in the exported registry
file. Is that a system variable?


FACE


On Wed, 29 Sep 2004 19:45:02 +0800, "Sandi - Microsoft MVP"
in microsoft.public.win98.internet wrote:

Courtesy of Jim Eshelman. It would be worth checking the affected
machine's
registry.

The location of the default HOSTS file is stored in your Windows Registry
at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Serv ices\Tcpip\Parameters in
the
value DataBasePath.

The default value is %SystemRoot% in Windows 95, 98, or ME, but can be
changed by changing the Registry value.

On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 19:09:48 +0800, "Sandi - Microsoft MVP"
in microsoft.public.win98.internet wrote:

Try creating the key in question.


Thanks. Will do.

%systemroot% is simply a generic way of writing, for example, c:\windows.


ALSO,

The literal value of %SystemRoot% does not occur in the exported registry
file. Is that a system variable?


Literals...variables.....
@echo off
SET stringx=Thanks again!
SET smiley = :-)
Echo %stringx% %smiley%


FACE

On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 01:29:43 -0700, "Travis Swift"
in microsoft.public.win98.internet wrote:

Look for HOSTS.SAM in your Windows directory. Yes,
microsoft.com should block www.microsoft.com and
support.microsoft.com. Try using only the domain name and
the suffix; not the subdomain as well.

Yes, i had found the .SAM file (Faith and Begorrah! The lead line after the
copyright text said that it was a sample HOSTS file!)

I downloaded a HOSTS file from http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm and am
adding to it as I get pop-ups but it appears the main thing I need to do at
this point is add the registry key and value, as Sandi clued me in on.

Thanks for the tip on the domain name and suffix only. I do wonder if some
of these fine people are not getting a "www." into their domain name as i
notice that their are a fair number of "www." entries in that downloaded
HOSTS file.

Also, i note in the HOSTS.sbs (Spybot S&D) file that there are numerous www
entries mixed in, such as:

127.0.0.1 coolwwwsearch.com
127.0.0.1 coolwebsearch.com
127.0.0.1 hi.studioaperto.net
127.0.0.1 www.webbrowser.tv
127.0.0.1 www.wazzupnet.com
127.0.0.1 gueb.com
127.0.0.1 kabex.com
127.0.0.1 www.hityou.com
127.0.0.1 miosearch.com
127.0.0.1 wazzupnet.com

This file may be anecdotal, but note the recurrence of "wazzupnet", with and
without the preceding "www." Same sort of thing occurs with the downloaded
HOSTS file.

FACE

Well, I'm using my pc at work to go online; since I
haven't had internet at home for over a year now (sulk)
and I haven't really used HOSTS since, considering I'm on
a Windows NT machine atm. None the less, I usually just
sit with my temporary internet files and looking for all
the address of the popups there... I notice
doubleclick.net wasn't on your list but, if you are
just getting windows not to resolve the DNS correctly,
won't your popups filled with javascript and spam rubbish
turn into popups filled with 404 errors?

In the other post you asked how to get the URL of popup
ads without an Address Bar, if you press Ctrl+N they'll
open up in a new window with an address bar. You could
also just try Right-Clicking (on text) and going to
properties.