has changed according to AVG free edition,from size 772 to 887,is this bad? i did not change it. thanks!
2006-11-18 22:33:12 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Security
depends what wrote to it... whether it was somsething good ornot... to be safe... erase the file.
it will be recreated by windows
actually lucee the size change means soemthing was added to it... nto removed fro mit
2006-11-18 22:35:42 · answer #1 · answered by israeli_stuck_in_usa 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Humans use words to communicate, computers use numbers. All websites etc have an IP address that the domain name translates to.
DNS is the tool that translates those words to numbers using nameservers (usually allocated automatically by your ISP).
The hosts files allows you to overide that look up. It can be useful as an adblocker - known advertising domains can be redirected to your own machine. However it can also be used by malicious software that can write entries that divert legitimate websites to 'bad' ones.
You can open it up in a notepad and see what's been written to it. Normally it should just consist of a text explanation and a single entry of localhost 127.0.0.1 As someone else said you could just delete it and it would be recreated, however it might be changed again - better to find out what did it.
2006-11-18 23:54:10 · answer #2 · answered by the_wrabbit 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
This is not necessarily bad. As explained above this file contains the ip address of places you would go on the web. It is checked before DNS checks are made.
First - do not delete this file.
Second - have someone web savvy look at it and determine if some virus or spyware is attempting to route information away from where it should be going. It can be looked at with any text editor.
However I don't want to alarm you. It is unlikely that the size increase is bad.
2006-11-19 03:11:33 · answer #3 · answered by Mn 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
System32 is a major programme in windows, i should know as i deleted it and it cost me £50 to get it fixed so do not touch that whatever you do.Uninstall avg and see if it makes any difference to your pc for a day.If not then reinstall avg.
2006-11-18 23:03:30 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Right directory is C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc FIle is called hosts Be careful when changing something in this file.It`s good to make backup copy.
2016-05-22 02:48:57 · answer #5 · answered by Elizabeth 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
AVG has removed some unwanted files from system 32, which is a part of Windows. Nothing to worry about.
2006-11-18 22:35:09 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
You've had some good answers, I'd just like to add that you can install SpywareBlaster. It will prevent malicious changes to your hosts file.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com
2006-11-19 03:38:43 · answer #7 · answered by sarah c 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is the file that contains the names of websites you want to block from viewing on your computer.
If you put the following line in hosts file
(put the name of the site to be blocked here, appending 127.0.0.1 before each website to be blocked)
127.0.0.1 www.blockme.com
save the file.
2006-11-18 22:42:37 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋