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Windows Forum / Internet Explorer / General Topics / June 2008How are some websites able to bypass my Hosts file?
I put common websites into my Hosts file. Even so, I have found that some sites, like forums.caranddriver.com, are still able to access servers like adbureau.net. How can they do this? I had tried clearing both my history and my history to ensure IE couldn't possibly be retrieving cached data. I am using IE7 through a Firefox extension called IE Tab that puts IE into a FF tab. ----- will 68 at mtco dot com will dot pittenger1 at gmail dot com (use this address for large signatures) You need to restart Internet Explorer for HOSTS file changes to take effect. If you do that do you still have the problem? ju.c > I put common websites into my Hosts file. Even so, I have found that > some sites, like forums.caranddriver.com, are still able to access [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > will 68 at mtco dot com > will dot pittenger1 at gmail dot com (use this address for large signatures) Yes. I even rebooted. Some of the ads are Flash based if that matters. ----- will 68 at mtco dot com will dot pittenger1 at gmail dot com (use this address for large signatures) > You need to restart Internet Explorer for HOSTS file changes to take effect. > [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] >> will 68 at mtco dot com >> will dot pittenger1 at gmail dot com (use this address for large signatures) FF doesn't use your HOSTS file, even with IE Tab in use, only IE does. > I put common websites into my Hosts file. Even so, I have found that > some sites, like forums.caranddriver.com, are still able to access [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > will dot pittenger1 at gmail dot com (use this address for large > signatures) I thought that it was used by Windows DNS lookup service and everything going through TCP/IP used that. I thought the whole hosts file concept came from linux including the file name. ----- will 68 at mtco dot com will dot pittenger1 at gmail dot com (use this address for large signatures) > FF doesn't use your HOSTS file, even with IE Tab in use, only IE does. > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] >> will dot pittenger1 at gmail dot com (use this address for large >> signatures) > I put common websites into my Hosts file. Even so, I have found that > some sites, like forums.caranddriver.com, are still able to access > servers like adbureau.net. How can they do this? I had tried clearing > both my history and my history to ensure IE couldn't possibly be > retrieving cached data. Because adbureau.net is not the host. That is a *domain*. The ad comes from a host. Your *hosts* file lists hosts, not domains. If the host you have specified in your hosts file doesn't match the host from which the ad is served then there is no equivalency made to localhost. hosts file has this: hostname.domain.tld not this: domain.tld That is the deficiency with using a hosts file. You cannot use wildcards. You cannot specify domains. You can only specify hosts (on domains). That is why there are over 50 entries just for Doubleclick in the MVP hosts file to account for various hosts that have been observed used with their service. But that doesn't preclude Doubleclick from using different hostnames (even for the same host) or the server-side script for the ad content in the web page from cycling through different hostnames. A hosts file relies on the advertiser being stagnant on their hostnames. If you want to filter based on domains instead of hosts, use a DNS service that lets you do that, like OpenDNS, or use a firewall that lets you use domains (and might even let you wildcard the URLs). Also, if a web page or application uses an IP address to find an ad or other content, there is no DNS lookup. The hosts file and DNS server are used to do a lookup from IP name to IP address. If an IP address is used, no lookup is required nor is it usable. |
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