Re: [PCWorks] A tip for stopping annoying harassing "slide-ups" (a kind of pop-up) immune to pop-up blockers
- From: David Grossman <dgrossman@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: pcworks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2008 02:42:04 +0200
Thank you for your responses.
1. John's response confirmed one of my initial suspicions, as I wrote in my
initial message - that malware can change the Read Only attribute, so the
setting is of little value.
2. Hugh presented a surprising, but somewhat convincing argument against
using a firewall. Have others had similar experiences? Is the problem
limited to Comodo?
Actually, everybody probably DOES have a firewall installed and turned on by
now. The weak Windows firewall was turned on by default with XP SP1 or SP2
(I forgot which).
Hugh, do you turn off the Windows firewall for your clients, or do you
disable it when there is a problem?
3. Clint, you asked whether there is anything wrong with having duplicates
in the Hosts file. Did you get a response? If they will not cause a problem
(except for possibly adding some nanoseconds for websites to load) then we
can just add lists with addresses.
4. I'm still concerned about Spybot or other antimalware programs deleting
the entries that I add.
5. I would like to confirm my understanding about adding IP numbers instead
of website names to the Hosts file. Is the following summary correct?
- Add website addresses to the Hosts file
- Add IP numbers to the Restricted Zone
5. I'd like to find out the experience of others with the HostsMan and
Wikipedia hosts files before installing them in my computer. Has anybody on
this group used them?
David Grossman
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pcworks-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:pcworks-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of John O'Flynn
> Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 1:25 AM
> To: pcworks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [PCWorks] A tip for stopping annoying harassing
> "slide-ups" (a kind of pop-up) immune to pop-up blockers
>
>
> Some people are finding HostsMan useful. http://www.abelhadigital.com/
> I haven't had time to check it out, but as I understand it, it alows you
> to combine hosts lists from various sources (eg MVPS) and takes care of
> duplicates.
>
> There is some good info and a list of custom hosts files here:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_file
>
> I read somewhere but can't remember where, that setting the hosts file
> to read only is a waste of time because some of the newer malware can
> simply undo this setting and tamper with it.
>
> John
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Hugh Vandervoort" <hughv2@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <pcworks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2008 12:23 PM
> Subject: Re: [PCWorks] A tip for stopping annoying harassing "slide-ups"
> (a kind of pop-up) immune to pop-up blockers
>
>
> > Here's the entry in my Hosts file:
> > # Start of entries inserted by Spybot - Search & Destroy
> > 127.0.0.1 007guard.com
> > 127.0.0.1 008i.com
> > ...
> > I Installed the MVP Hosts file first, then the S & D file
> >
> > I've installed many a firewall, and almost all my users end up
> confused.
> > I know the conventional wisdom, and I, as well as many others, reject
> it.
> > Just one of many examples:
> >
> > "After seeing the recommendation about Comodo, I decided to try it.
> > After half a day of unsuccessfully trying to get it to play nice with
> my
> > system, I finally decided to uninstall it. After the uninstall,
> nothing
> > worked. No Internet connection, nothing in the Control Panel would
> work,
> > Firefox would not start, Spy Sweeper hung, etc. Had to resort to a
> > system restore. After doing some research, a lot of others have had
> > problems as well. Just a word of caution."
> >
> > Thanks, but no thanks.
> >
> >
> > Clint Hamilton-PCWorks Admin wrote:
> > > (Regarding #1, he was talking about the Restricted Sites area,
> > > not the hosts file).
> > >
> > > Regarding #2; you can't put IP addresses in the hosts file?
> > >
> > > #6.......HUH???? I'm shocked to hear that. :-0 Whether the
> > > security is a "false sense" or not, there's no denying the fact
> > > they block a multitude of sins. I don't call that false sense
> > > of security. Without one, you have no idea when something is
> > > getting access to your PC--deleting data, stealing sensitive
> > > data, adding malware, etc.
> > >
> > > Has anyone been able to determine yet if when SpyBot updates
> > > the hosts file, it overwrites any custom entries added either
> > > by you, or by MVPS? Or does it just add the new data to the
> > > file leaving what's there intact? If the latter, then how can
> > > it do it alphabetical order?
> > > -Clint
>
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG.
Version: 7.5.549 / Virus Database: 270.9.9/1805 - Release Date: 11/22/2008
10:34 AM
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