HOSTS file in Online Armor

[Updated February-11-2009) snipped

[dorf]

About that hosts file in win Xp. I just try to open it in notepad that is not possible.(copy it and change .txt extension to it) (host file size 60.2 kb)

Is it so that OA is locked host file somehow.?
its not even open with : Host File Checker 2.2


Host settings are :Allowed ( edit : option show empty boxes, nothing to edit)
and [ v ]Track changes......

is this looking normal?
http://s5.tinypic.com/2qjevsj.jpg

[catprincess]

Originally Posted by dorf

About that hosts file in win Xp. I just try to open it in notepad that is not possible.(copy it and change .txt extension to it) (host file size 60.2 kb)

Is it so that OA is locked host file somehow.?
its not even open with : Host File Checker 2.2


Host settings are :Allowed ( edit : option show empty boxes, nothing to edit)
and [ v ]Track changes......

is this looking normal?
http://s5.tinypic.com/2qjevsj.jpg

OA doesn't prevent you from viewing the hosts file. Not sure what is going on there.

With regards to your attachment, have you deleted a localhost entry from Hosts in OA? as usually one would be present.

[dorf]

Originally Posted by catprincess

OA doesn't prevent you from viewing the hosts file. Not sure what is going on there.

With regards to your attachment, have you deleted a localhost entry from Hosts in OA? as usually one would be present.

i do not remember to deleted anything from OA hosts settings.
well host file is still locked, empty or something...funny

[dorf]

just run HostsXpert v4.3 and clik: restore hosts file.
so now i have normal host file.
http://i43.tinypic.com/osbmkx.jpg

if anybody have blank hosts file this maybe one solution.

[catprincess]

Originally Posted by dorf

just run HostsXpert v4.3 and clik: restore hosts file.
so now i have normal host file.
http://i43.tinypic.com/osbmkx.jpg

if anybody have blank hosts file this maybe one solution.

Glad to hear your host's file is back in working order

[bigspanner]

Originally Posted by MikeNash

They should be marked as "allowed" as in "This entry is allowed to exist in your hosts file"

Though it is late, as now it is 2009, but I am a new customer of OA and recently, my computer gave me a wedgie, so I looked into the host file and basically explore OA more. Then, like Mary asked, I wondered if "Allow" meant OA allowed those @#$% sites to run in my computer, as Sybot and Destroy specifically said in its Immunization module that it will lock up the host file after it has updated it. So, seeing that OA "Allowed" the @#$% sites, it does give a new user unfamiliar to what OA meant by "Allow". I had to google to come here to discover that "allow" by OA mean just that it allows the host files to exist.

The real knowledge is for me and anyone to understand what a host file is. Most important, it should point to 127.0.0.1, which is the localhost. This means that any @#$% sites having its IP as 127.0.0.1 is routed in a local loop and never get pointed out to its actual IP.

Finally, having said a ton about this, may I suggest enhancing this document http://www.tallemu.com/hosts_checker.html, so that we can rely on it for a full and proper explanation of host file and the meaning of "Block" and "Allow", rather than for one to be left in doubt and think otherwise that OA is "Allowing" all these @#$% sites to run. This was what I though in the first place, and if I can think like this, so can alot of others out there using OA and not technically tuned in.

As an offside, I just had the worse sweat for awhile. My right click does not respond and I thought it had to do with a badly coded application abusing the context menu handler. So, away I went to find a solution, and came to know of ShellExView by Nirsoft. After using it to narrow down the troublemaker, everytime I disable and enable the shell extension of each ocx or dll, etc,.....OA always ask if I allow it to run at Startup. Hey, this is crazy as I don't even know what these ocx, dll, etc are as they come in strange names I have never seen before. I just allowed OA to allow them to run at Startup, but blindly.

Then I realized I am not solving the problem so I went away looking for another cause of the Right Click not responding problem. In the midst of all this, I click on one of my folders and realized that instead of bringing me to its sub-directory as it would normally do, now it fires up another application, in this case it was ACDSee. I went into folder options to change it back to default but could not find the right command inside the option to select. So, I quite desperately chose "Search" and henceforth, every time I click on a folder, it will fire up Search.

It dawned on me that I could have a corrupted Windows Explorer, so away I went looking for a solution. there were some who suggest changing the keys in the Registry, another selling a Registry Cleaner that claims to be able to solve the Explorer corruption in 3 mins. [Google that claim].

Another suggested it was malware or virus and suggested I do a scan, restore pointing, another suggested I do a Guided Repair of Win Explorer. So, I went accepting the terms of the Guided Repair application of Microsoft and running it. It hanged. Desperate now, I find relaxation in watching Youtube, but hey! After I rebooted my computer, I thought I might as well re-cycle my broadband, just in case it is static causing the problem. I screwed my internet as I did not plug properly back the cable. When it was re-set, I had no sound coming from my Youtube. So now, I thought now it must be my motherboard going away. This is serious. More serious than a Reformat. It is a total discard and overhaul.

As I was desperately hanging to my last cardiac sign of life, I toggled to another computer on my LAN and started some serious work I had to deliver and to take a breather from the shit of the other computer. Then the blessing in disguise happened. My Right Click also soon did not work. Then my Left Click also did not work on this second computer. Horrors! Could it be that both computers are infected by a trojan determined to end my life?

But I took the path less travelled. I deduced that since my Sound did not work for the first computer BUT that it worked for the second, then it could not possibly be a virus or trojan, as the behavour is inconsistent.

To cut a longer story just long, it was my @#$% faulty mouse. After I changed it, all is fine. So, I saved myself so much headache and heartache that I believe I have saved a ton of time to share this episode with you guys here.

The mind works in mysterious way. God works in an even more mysterious way, beating me at every corner I turned in my perception. When the worse is never what it seemed. So, my friends, have faith. All is well that ends well and the next battle is already in the horizon and history may well repeat itself but we will be wiser then.

[catprincess]

Originally Posted by bigspanner

Finally, having said a ton about this, may I suggest enhancing this document http://www.tallemu.com/hosts_checker.html, so that we can rely on it for a full and proper explanation of host file and the meaning of "Block" and "Allow", rather than for one to be left in doubt and think otherwise that OA is "Allowing" all these @#$% sites to run. This was what I though in the first place, and if I can think like this, so can alot of others out there using OA and not technically tuned in.

Probably it might be something worth mentioning in the web help There is also a blog entry of Mike's here http://onlinearmorpersonalfirewall.b...-problems.html that explains how hosts works in OA

[stapp]

Also bigspanner thanks for mentioning Robert Frost's best poem in your post

[bigspanner]

Originally Posted by stapp

Also bigspanner thanks for mentioning Robert Frost's best poem in your post

Most welcome, Stapp. Oh, if we both may digress from this thread.....

The final lines of the best poem: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the 'one less traveled' by,
And that has made all the difference.
PS: Notice the last line? "That has made all the difference"! It sure had for me!