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Hosts file & slow loading?
About 6 months ago my daughter forced me to stop being a dinosaur when she
moved her family to Florida. (I don't even own a cell phone) She gave me her old Win98SE computer after she "cleaned it" when she got a new one. I am using Wal-Mart dial up ($9.94/mo. Ok, I'm cheap she says, It's really AOL shell but with Wal-Mart branding). 520 mb ram she says, 120gb drive, (70%free space), all the usual ad stoping/spyware programs and AVG Free virus stuff. It's slow on loading up pages. Real slooow. I can go to the kitchen and pour a cup of coffee and return and it's still loading. A young neighbor said it's probably the Hosts file. He explained and I kind of understand the principle. I looked at the host file and there is a boat load of sites there. 1. Doesn't this slow down the web browsing if it has to look for these sites first? 2. What would happen if I deleted these? 3. Can I set it up so it doesn't have to download pictures? 4. Would that be faster? Be kind, I'm an emerging Rip Van Winkle coming out of a 30 yr sleep. Lot of catching up to do. |
#2
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Hosts file & slow loading?
1. *Anything* besides AOL. Well, not really "anything" since there are a few
others out there that are almost as bad, but really, AOL sucks BIG time! 2. Any dial-up (DUN) these days is going to crawl, even slower than it used to. Websites are loaded with a lot more than they used to be when DUN was king, and DUN providers don't devote the resources to their servers that they used to. I *strongly* advise that you upgrade to DSL. The cost might be as low as $16/month. Who's your telephone provider and do you live in a populated area (not some rural location)? 3. At DUN speeds, the HOSTS file isn't going to be causing any problems. Yes, it causes a barely noticeable slowdown on fast connections with older machines, but that's something I consider a fair trade-off considering the protection it offers. The HOSTS file is a redirect file. It was originally used to make getting around a local network easier (think big business). Instead of remembering long IP addresses (like 192.168.14.310) or \\Servername\Computername\sharedfolder, one could simply type in "mikesdocs" and an entry in the HOSTS file would translate that to the proper address. These days, we use it to redirect known malicious sites to an address that is guaranteed to fail on most machines -- your own computer, aka localhost, aka127.0.0.1. Unless you have an internet server installed on your machine, that address produces an error page instead of allowing your browser to download whatever is coming from that site. Since the bulk of the download from commercial sites is advertising, and the HOSTS file redirects those to an error page (which is on your own machine and takes little time to load), the HOSTS file is saving you a TON of time when you go to commercial sites (or to AOL using your WalMart account, which is almost certainly loaded with its own advertising.) To properly use the HOSTS file in this manner, you need to periodically update it from some site that manages a HOSTS file, adding malicious or wasteful addresses as they become known to the manager. We MVPs have one such site at http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm. One MVP, George Geyde, has developed a program to update the HOSTS file for you. Get it he http://dundats.mvps.org/Software/Index.htm (at bottom of page.) But I'm betting that since you already have an active HOSTS file, and you've found your way here, that your daughter has already installed this program. Once you've installed the program, or if you already have it installed, remember to run it every week or two. Once you've graduated to DSL or other broadband, come back and I'll give you some tricks to automate it. Don't want to do that until you're no longer on Dial-up. As for making your system run faster, I suggest you start with the links in my signature. Then come on back with your new questions and we'll proceed from there. Your internet browsing speed has nothing to do with the HOSTS file and everything to do with needing to tune up your system (and getting broadband, of course.) -- Gary S. Terhune MS-MVP Shell/User http://grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm http://grystmill.com/articles/security.htm "Joe T" wrote in message ... About 6 months ago my daughter forced me to stop being a dinosaur when she moved her family to Florida. (I don't even own a cell phone) She gave me her old Win98SE computer after she "cleaned it" when she got a new one. I am using Wal-Mart dial up ($9.94/mo. Ok, I'm cheap she says, It's really AOL shell but with Wal-Mart branding). 520 mb ram she says, 120gb drive, (70%free space), all the usual ad stoping/spyware programs and AVG Free virus stuff. It's slow on loading up pages. Real slooow. I can go to the kitchen and pour a cup of coffee and return and it's still loading. A young neighbor said it's probably the Hosts file. He explained and I kind of understand the principle. I looked at the host file and there is a boat load of sites there. 1. Doesn't this slow down the web browsing if it has to look for these sites first? 2. What would happen if I deleted these? 3. Can I set it up so it doesn't have to download pictures? 4. Would that be faster? Be kind, I'm an emerging Rip Van Winkle coming out of a 30 yr sleep. Lot of catching up to do. |
#3
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Hosts file & slow loading?
1. *Anything* besides AOL. Well, not really "anything" since there are a few
others out there that are almost as bad, but really, AOL sucks BIG time! 2. Any dial-up (DUN) these days is going to crawl, even slower than it used to. Websites are loaded with a lot more than they used to be when DUN was king, and DUN providers don't devote the resources to their servers that they used to. I *strongly* advise that you upgrade to DSL. The cost might be as low as $16/month. Who's your telephone provider and do you live in a populated area (not some rural location)? 3. At DUN speeds, the HOSTS file isn't going to be causing any problems. Yes, it causes a barely noticeable slowdown on fast connections with older machines, but that's something I consider a fair trade-off considering the protection it offers. The HOSTS file is a redirect file. It was originally used to make getting around a local network easier (think big business). Instead of remembering long IP addresses (like 192.168.14.310) or \\Servername\Computername\sharedfolder, one could simply type in "mikesdocs" and an entry in the HOSTS file would translate that to the proper address. These days, we use it to redirect known malicious sites to an address that is guaranteed to fail on most machines -- your own computer, aka localhost, aka127.0.0.1. Unless you have an internet server installed on your machine, that address produces an error page instead of allowing your browser to download whatever is coming from that site. Since the bulk of the download from commercial sites is advertising, and the HOSTS file redirects those to an error page (which is on your own machine and takes little time to load), the HOSTS file is saving you a TON of time when you go to commercial sites (or to AOL using your WalMart account, which is almost certainly loaded with its own advertising.) To properly use the HOSTS file in this manner, you need to periodically update it from some site that manages a HOSTS file, adding malicious or wasteful addresses as they become known to the manager. We MVPs have one such site at http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm. One MVP, George Geyde, has developed a program to update the HOSTS file for you. Get it he http://dundats.mvps.org/Software/Index.htm (at bottom of page.) But I'm betting that since you already have an active HOSTS file, and you've found your way here, that your daughter has already installed this program. Once you've installed the program, or if you already have it installed, remember to run it every week or two. Once you've graduated to DSL or other broadband, come back and I'll give you some tricks to automate it. Don't want to do that until you're no longer on Dial-up. As for making your system run faster, I suggest you start with the links in my signature. Then come on back with your new questions and we'll proceed from there. Your internet browsing speed has nothing to do with the HOSTS file and everything to do with needing to tune up your system (and getting broadband, of course.) -- Gary S. Terhune MS-MVP Shell/User http://grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm http://grystmill.com/articles/security.htm "Joe T" wrote in message ... About 6 months ago my daughter forced me to stop being a dinosaur when she moved her family to Florida. (I don't even own a cell phone) She gave me her old Win98SE computer after she "cleaned it" when she got a new one. I am using Wal-Mart dial up ($9.94/mo. Ok, I'm cheap she says, It's really AOL shell but with Wal-Mart branding). 520 mb ram she says, 120gb drive, (70%free space), all the usual ad stoping/spyware programs and AVG Free virus stuff. It's slow on loading up pages. Real slooow. I can go to the kitchen and pour a cup of coffee and return and it's still loading. A young neighbor said it's probably the Hosts file. He explained and I kind of understand the principle. I looked at the host file and there is a boat load of sites there. 1. Doesn't this slow down the web browsing if it has to look for these sites first? 2. What would happen if I deleted these? 3. Can I set it up so it doesn't have to download pictures? 4. Would that be faster? Be kind, I'm an emerging Rip Van Winkle coming out of a 30 yr sleep. Lot of catching up to do. |
#4
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Hosts file & slow loading?
"Joe T" wrote in message
... About 6 months ago my daughter forced me to stop being a dinosaur when she moved her family to Florida. (I don't even own a cell phone) She gave me her old Win98SE computer after she "cleaned it" when she got a new one. I am using Wal-Mart dial up ($9.94/mo. Ok, I'm cheap she says, It's really AOL shell but with Wal-Mart branding). 520 mb ram she says, 120gb drive, (Probably 512 rather than 520.) Sounds - assuming the rest is similar spec. to the RAM and HD size - as if it's likely to be a fairly good system. [] It's slow on loading up pages. Real slooow. I can go to the kitchen and pour a cup of coffee and return and it's still loading. A young neighbor said it's Hmm, that _is_ slow, even allowing for the propensity these days if site designers to assume everybody has broadband. Does that apply even for text-only pages (or with image downlad turned off, see below)? probably the Hosts file. He explained and I kind of understand the principle. I looked at the host file and there is a boat load of sites there. 1. Doesn't this slow down the web browsing if it has to look for these sites As gary said, the Hosts file - assuming it is reasonably OK - is probably _saving_ you _some_ time. first? 2. What would happen if I deleted these? 3. Can I set it up so it If you want to try, just rename the hosts file to some other name; if it makes no difference, rename it back (deleting any hosts file the system has created on its own in the meantime). doesn't have to download pictures? 4. Would that be faster? Yes, and lots. A picture is generally worth a lot more than a thousand words these days (-:! A lot of web sites will be unusable, though, because they tend to have buttons with images of words on, so you can't see what the buttons are; however, some sites will still work, especially if they've implemented ALT text to help the visually handicapped and those on slow links. (People who do this generally make better sites anyway, IMO ...) As for _how_ you turn image download off, it depends on your browser. I don't know if AOL/Walmart uses something different; if it's basically some variant of Internet Explorer, although it varies slightly with some versions, it's probably (it is for this version 6 anyway) under Tools, Internet options, Advanced, and you want to untick "Show Pictures" (and probably tick "Show Image Download Placeholders" if not already ticked, as that will keep the structure on better-designed pages). (If AOL is completely different, someone please say - I know not of it.) Be kind, I'm an emerging Rip Van Winkle coming out of a 30 yr sleep. Lot of catching up to do. Delighted to hear it. |
#5
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Hosts file & slow loading?
"Joe T" wrote in message
... About 6 months ago my daughter forced me to stop being a dinosaur when she moved her family to Florida. (I don't even own a cell phone) She gave me her old Win98SE computer after she "cleaned it" when she got a new one. I am using Wal-Mart dial up ($9.94/mo. Ok, I'm cheap she says, It's really AOL shell but with Wal-Mart branding). 520 mb ram she says, 120gb drive, (Probably 512 rather than 520.) Sounds - assuming the rest is similar spec. to the RAM and HD size - as if it's likely to be a fairly good system. [] It's slow on loading up pages. Real slooow. I can go to the kitchen and pour a cup of coffee and return and it's still loading. A young neighbor said it's Hmm, that _is_ slow, even allowing for the propensity these days if site designers to assume everybody has broadband. Does that apply even for text-only pages (or with image downlad turned off, see below)? probably the Hosts file. He explained and I kind of understand the principle. I looked at the host file and there is a boat load of sites there. 1. Doesn't this slow down the web browsing if it has to look for these sites As gary said, the Hosts file - assuming it is reasonably OK - is probably _saving_ you _some_ time. first? 2. What would happen if I deleted these? 3. Can I set it up so it If you want to try, just rename the hosts file to some other name; if it makes no difference, rename it back (deleting any hosts file the system has created on its own in the meantime). doesn't have to download pictures? 4. Would that be faster? Yes, and lots. A picture is generally worth a lot more than a thousand words these days (-:! A lot of web sites will be unusable, though, because they tend to have buttons with images of words on, so you can't see what the buttons are; however, some sites will still work, especially if they've implemented ALT text to help the visually handicapped and those on slow links. (People who do this generally make better sites anyway, IMO ...) As for _how_ you turn image download off, it depends on your browser. I don't know if AOL/Walmart uses something different; if it's basically some variant of Internet Explorer, although it varies slightly with some versions, it's probably (it is for this version 6 anyway) under Tools, Internet options, Advanced, and you want to untick "Show Pictures" (and probably tick "Show Image Download Placeholders" if not already ticked, as that will keep the structure on better-designed pages). (If AOL is completely different, someone please say - I know not of it.) Be kind, I'm an emerging Rip Van Winkle coming out of a 30 yr sleep. Lot of catching up to do. Delighted to hear it. |
#6
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Hosts file & slow loading?
1.Text only pages loads up fine.
2. Wal-Mart changed to now its called Netscape Connect but its not Netscape browser. 3. If I rename the hosts file temporarally for testing, am I now "naked" to the net? What happens then? Is the hosts file part of anti virus and spyware defeating section? Does windows automatically rebuild the file with thousand of entries in it? Thanks all, I guess I'll just have to come into the 21st century and get DSL/Broadband/Cable or whatever. Should I change to WinXP Pro from 98second edition? Now to figure out which one is best and cheapest. Does that go together? Can you have one AND the other? I'm still a tight wad. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "J. P. Gilliver" wrote: "Joe T" wrote in message ... About 6 months ago my daughter forced me to stop being a dinosaur when she moved her family to Florida. (I don't even own a cell phone) She gave me her old Win98SE computer after she "cleaned it" when she got a new one. I am using Wal-Mart dial up ($9.94/mo. Ok, I'm cheap she says, It's really AOL shell but with Wal-Mart branding). 520 mb ram she says, 120gb drive, (Probably 512 rather than 520.) Sounds - assuming the rest is similar spec. to the RAM and HD size - as if it's likely to be a fairly good system. [] It's slow on loading up pages. Real slooow. I can go to the kitchen and pour a cup of coffee and return and it's still loading. A young neighbor said it's Hmm, that _is_ slow, even allowing for the propensity these days if site designers to assume everybody has broadband. Does that apply even for text-only pages (or with image downlad turned off, see below)? probably the Hosts file. He explained and I kind of understand the principle. I looked at the host file and there is a boat load of sites there. 1. Doesn't this slow down the web browsing if it has to look for these sites As gary said, the Hosts file - assuming it is reasonably OK - is probably _saving_ you _some_ time. first? 2. What would happen if I deleted these? 3. Can I set it up so it If you want to try, just rename the hosts file to some other name; if it makes no difference, rename it back (deleting any hosts file the system has created on its own in the meantime). doesn't have to download pictures? 4. Would that be faster? Yes, and lots. A picture is generally worth a lot more than a thousand words these days (-:! A lot of web sites will be unusable, though, because they tend to have buttons with images of words on, so you can't see what the buttons are; however, some sites will still work, especially if they've implemented ALT text to help the visually handicapped and those on slow links. (People who do this generally make better sites anyway, IMO ...) As for _how_ you turn image download off, it depends on your browser. I don't know if AOL/Walmart uses something different; if it's basically some variant of Internet Explorer, although it varies slightly with some versions, it's probably (it is for this version 6 anyway) under Tools, Internet options, Advanced, and you want to untick "Show Pictures" (and probably tick "Show Image Download Placeholders" if not already ticked, as that will keep the structure on better-designed pages). (If AOL is completely different, someone please say - I know not of it.) Be kind, I'm an emerging Rip Van Winkle coming out of a 30 yr sleep. Lot of catching up to do. Delighted to hear it. |
#7
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Hosts file & slow loading?
No, you are not "naked to the net" when you disable the HOSTS file. If you
go to a site with lots of 3rd-party advertising, then you might see a lot more download on that page, or if you type in the address of a particularly malicious website and go to it, you might risk catching something... Yes, it is part of an anti-spyware strategy and may even get re-enabled automatically when you restart. That question -- what app is using the HOSTS file for anti-spyware purposes -- is one that you might want to answer. -- Gary S. Terhune MS MVP Shell/User http://grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm http://grystmill.com/articles/security.htm "Joe T" wrote in message news 1.Text only pages loads up fine. 2. Wal-Mart changed to now its called Netscape Connect but its not Netscape browser. 3. If I rename the hosts file temporarally for testing, am I now "naked" to the net? What happens then? Is the hosts file part of anti virus and spyware defeating section? Does windows automatically rebuild the file with thousand of entries in it? Thanks all, I guess I'll just have to come into the 21st century and get DSL/Broadband/Cable or whatever. Should I change to WinXP Pro from 98second edition? Now to figure out which one is best and cheapest. Does that go together? Can you have one AND the other? I'm still a tight wad. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------- "J. P. Gilliver" wrote: "Joe T" wrote in message ... About 6 months ago my daughter forced me to stop being a dinosaur when she moved her family to Florida. (I don't even own a cell phone) She gave me her old Win98SE computer after she "cleaned it" when she got a new one. I am using Wal-Mart dial up ($9.94/mo. Ok, I'm cheap she says, It's really AOL shell but with Wal-Mart branding). 520 mb ram she says, 120gb drive, (Probably 512 rather than 520.) Sounds - assuming the rest is similar spec. to the RAM and HD size - as if it's likely to be a fairly good system. [] It's slow on loading up pages. Real slooow. I can go to the kitchen and pour a cup of coffee and return and it's still loading. A young neighbor said it's Hmm, that _is_ slow, even allowing for the propensity these days if site designers to assume everybody has broadband. Does that apply even for text-only pages (or with image downlad turned off, see below)? probably the Hosts file. He explained and I kind of understand the principle. I looked at the host file and there is a boat load of sites there. 1. Doesn't this slow down the web browsing if it has to look for these sites As gary said, the Hosts file - assuming it is reasonably OK - is probably _saving_ you _some_ time. first? 2. What would happen if I deleted these? 3. Can I set it up so it If you want to try, just rename the hosts file to some other name; if it makes no difference, rename it back (deleting any hosts file the system has created on its own in the meantime). doesn't have to download pictures? 4. Would that be faster? Yes, and lots. A picture is generally worth a lot more than a thousand words these days (-:! A lot of web sites will be unusable, though, because they tend to have buttons with images of words on, so you can't see what the buttons are; however, some sites will still work, especially if they've implemented ALT text to help the visually handicapped and those on slow links. (People who do this generally make better sites anyway, IMO ...) As for _how_ you turn image download off, it depends on your browser. I don't know if AOL/Walmart uses something different; if it's basically some variant of Internet Explorer, although it varies slightly with some versions, it's probably (it is for this version 6 anyway) under Tools, Internet options, Advanced, and you want to untick "Show Pictures" (and probably tick "Show Image Download Placeholders" if not already ticked, as that will keep the structure on better-designed pages). (If AOL is completely different, someone please say - I know not of it.) Be kind, I'm an emerging Rip Van Winkle coming out of a 30 yr sleep. Lot of catching up to do. Delighted to hear it. |
#8
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Hosts file & slow loading?
No, you are not "naked to the net" when you disable the HOSTS file. If you
go to a site with lots of 3rd-party advertising, then you might see a lot more download on that page, or if you type in the address of a particularly malicious website and go to it, you might risk catching something... Yes, it is part of an anti-spyware strategy and may even get re-enabled automatically when you restart. That question -- what app is using the HOSTS file for anti-spyware purposes -- is one that you might want to answer. -- Gary S. Terhune MS MVP Shell/User http://grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm http://grystmill.com/articles/security.htm "Joe T" wrote in message news 1.Text only pages loads up fine. 2. Wal-Mart changed to now its called Netscape Connect but its not Netscape browser. 3. If I rename the hosts file temporarally for testing, am I now "naked" to the net? What happens then? Is the hosts file part of anti virus and spyware defeating section? Does windows automatically rebuild the file with thousand of entries in it? Thanks all, I guess I'll just have to come into the 21st century and get DSL/Broadband/Cable or whatever. Should I change to WinXP Pro from 98second edition? Now to figure out which one is best and cheapest. Does that go together? Can you have one AND the other? I'm still a tight wad. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------- "J. P. Gilliver" wrote: "Joe T" wrote in message ... About 6 months ago my daughter forced me to stop being a dinosaur when she moved her family to Florida. (I don't even own a cell phone) She gave me her old Win98SE computer after she "cleaned it" when she got a new one. I am using Wal-Mart dial up ($9.94/mo. Ok, I'm cheap she says, It's really AOL shell but with Wal-Mart branding). 520 mb ram she says, 120gb drive, (Probably 512 rather than 520.) Sounds - assuming the rest is similar spec. to the RAM and HD size - as if it's likely to be a fairly good system. [] It's slow on loading up pages. Real slooow. I can go to the kitchen and pour a cup of coffee and return and it's still loading. A young neighbor said it's Hmm, that _is_ slow, even allowing for the propensity these days if site designers to assume everybody has broadband. Does that apply even for text-only pages (or with image downlad turned off, see below)? probably the Hosts file. He explained and I kind of understand the principle. I looked at the host file and there is a boat load of sites there. 1. Doesn't this slow down the web browsing if it has to look for these sites As gary said, the Hosts file - assuming it is reasonably OK - is probably _saving_ you _some_ time. first? 2. What would happen if I deleted these? 3. Can I set it up so it If you want to try, just rename the hosts file to some other name; if it makes no difference, rename it back (deleting any hosts file the system has created on its own in the meantime). doesn't have to download pictures? 4. Would that be faster? Yes, and lots. A picture is generally worth a lot more than a thousand words these days (-:! A lot of web sites will be unusable, though, because they tend to have buttons with images of words on, so you can't see what the buttons are; however, some sites will still work, especially if they've implemented ALT text to help the visually handicapped and those on slow links. (People who do this generally make better sites anyway, IMO ...) As for _how_ you turn image download off, it depends on your browser. I don't know if AOL/Walmart uses something different; if it's basically some variant of Internet Explorer, although it varies slightly with some versions, it's probably (it is for this version 6 anyway) under Tools, Internet options, Advanced, and you want to untick "Show Pictures" (and probably tick "Show Image Download Placeholders" if not already ticked, as that will keep the structure on better-designed pages). (If AOL is completely different, someone please say - I know not of it.) Be kind, I'm an emerging Rip Van Winkle coming out of a 30 yr sleep. Lot of catching up to do. Delighted to hear it. |
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