Use HOSTS file to block ad/mal wares?

[Dan <dan27649@xxxxxxxxx>]

(From a post originally titled "Network Solutions down ?"  I responded to
it, but it appears the response went only to CPF0000.  Hence this "new" post
to PC-tech...)

On 10/23/06, Jones, John (US) <John.Jones@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Update your hosts file: http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
>
> Basically, add the contents of http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.txt
> to c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts to resolve a lot of ad, pr0n,
> and other sites to localhost - 127.0.0.1.  Doing so causes the ads to
> not load as they aren't found on your local PC.  It should speed up your
> browsing.


Wow, I've never heard of this.  Do all browsers "refer" to the hosts file,
or just IE?

How often do they update this?

I'm going to look into this later, but, wow, good post John!

- Dan