Hosts???

[Ole]

In C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts, I have tons of "hosts", most of them I have never heard of, what are they and what happens if I remove them, some of them are being blocked by Zone alarm as "high", some are sending cookies everytime I use the internet, is there a way to completely remove the "hosts" I don't know what they are. Thanks.

[Ottawaman]

virus scan right away

[Ottawaman]

read this....
http://www.thecomputermechanics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=174

[andyman]

first thing I have to ask is why are you looking around in there.
do the standard Anti-virus and spyware scans and you should be fine if Zone Alarm is blocking something that you know is not good right click it and delete it.
if it comes back your still infected.
turn off Restore and clean the machine from safe mode.

The short answer is that the Hosts file is like an address book. When you type an address like www.yahoo com into your browser, the Hosts file is consulted to see if you have the IP address

[54spliff]

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Spybot S/D has hosts functionality.

[Ole]

Thanks 54spliff, that was what I was looking for.

Thanks all for the quick replies.