81–90 of 104 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If every entry routes to 127.0.0.1, what's the worst that could happen?
One can also null route them as well via 0.0.0.0. Hosts tend to die instantly that way versus timing out with 127.0.0.1
Can most of this be accomplished more easily by using OpenDNS?
Is there an IP block lists for Servers ? I see a lot of traffic from ip addresses that seem to probe my measly AWS EC2 instance and I wish there was a list I could feed to my NGINX or IPtables so they would just drop those packets .
Wary of self-promotion here (sorry) but here's a gitHub repo that amalgamates and de-dupes recent hosts files from mvps.org, someonewhocares.org, and malwaredomainlist.com. https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If every entry routes to 127.0.0.1, what's the worst that could happen?
One can also null route them as well via 0.0.0.0. Hosts tend to die instantly that way versus timing out with 127.0.0.1
I once had to troubleshoot why a Windows (XP I believe) computer was taking so long to browse the web. Turns out, it had a hosts file like this (generated from Spybot, IIRC). Cleaned out the hosts file, and it ran much faster. Just something to think about when using massive hosts files.
It's true there is an up-front cost paid when first loading it, and for the initial domain lookups. After initial lookups, DNS cache takes over.
The real benefit comes because countless requests for ads, tracking scripts and counters, etc, never leave your box. Network traffic is greatly reduced.
A comprehensive hosts file dramatically improved the performance of a relative's dialup internet connection a few years ago. A web that was borderline unusable became much snappier. And web pages had almost no ad adornments.
So on balance this is a very good thing. YMMV.