HOSTS files and IE7

Rohaq

So I need to block a few specific sites on my machine. Normally I'd just use a HOSTS file to point their domains to 127.0.0.1, however it appears that Microsoft, through some fit of lunacy, decided to break HOSTS in IE7: Now the blocks I've put into place work in everything, except for IE7, which was the program I wanted to block in the first place

Can anyone offer any advice to making HOSTS stick in IE7? This has annoyed me muchly

AngelHedgie

Rohaq wrote: »

So I need to block a few specific sites on my machine. Normally I'd just use a HOSTS file to point their domains to 127.0.0.1, however it appears that Microsoft, through some fit of lunacy, decided to break HOSTS in IE7: Now the blocks I've put into place work in everything, except for IE7, which was the program I wanted to block in the first place

Can anyone offer any advice to making HOSTS stick in IE7? This has annoyed me muchly

Huh? HOSTS operates at the system level.

Rohaq

Yeah? Well then go ahead and prove me wrong ;-)

Meaning I've tested this already, and can confirm that HOSTS has no affect on IE7 any more.

Feral

AngelHedgie wrote: »

Rohaq wrote: »

So I need to block a few specific sites on my machine. Normally I'd just use a HOSTS file to point their domains to 127.0.0.1, however it appears that Microsoft, through some fit of lunacy, decided to break HOSTS in IE7: Now the blocks I've put into place work in everything, except for IE7, which was the program I wanted to block in the first place

Can anyone offer any advice to making HOSTS stick in IE7? This has annoyed me muchly

Huh? HOSTS operates at the system level.

IE7 broke it.

Unfortunately, I do not have an answer for you, Rohaq. Perhaps you block the offending sites via a software firewall or in your router.

Janin

Feral wrote: »

AngelHedgie wrote: »

Rohaq wrote: »

So I need to block a few specific sites on my machine. Normally I'd just use a HOSTS file to point their domains to 127.0.0.1, however it appears that Microsoft, through some fit of lunacy, decided to break HOSTS in IE7: Now the blocks I've put into place work in everything, except for IE7, which was the program I wanted to block in the first place

Can anyone offer any advice to making HOSTS stick in IE7? This has annoyed me muchly

Huh? HOSTS operates at the system level.

IE7 broke it.

Unfortunately, I do not have an answer for you, Rohaq. Perhaps you block the offending sites via a software firewall or in your router.

That (rather paranoid and ranty) page is about a system-wide bypassing of the hosts file for specific URLs. Rohaq's problem is that specifically IE7 is ignoring the hosts file for all URLs. I advise using OpenDNS. If you associate an account with an IP address, they'll allow you to block hosts at the DNS level.

Rohaq

jmillikin wrote: »

Feral wrote: »

AngelHedgie wrote: »

Rohaq wrote: »

So I need to block a few specific sites on my machine. Normally I'd just use a HOSTS file to point their domains to 127.0.0.1, however it appears that Microsoft, through some fit of lunacy, decided to break HOSTS in IE7: Now the blocks I've put into place work in everything, except for IE7, which was the program I wanted to block in the first place

Can anyone offer any advice to making HOSTS stick in IE7? This has annoyed me muchly

Huh? HOSTS operates at the system level.

IE7 broke it.

Unfortunately, I do not have an answer for you, Rohaq. Perhaps you block the offending sites via a software firewall or in your router.

That (rather paranoid and ranty) page is about a system-wide bypassing of the hosts file for specific URLs. Rohaq's problem is that specifically IE7 is ignoring the hosts file for all URLs. I advise using OpenDNS. If you associate an account with an IP address, they'll allow you to block hosts at the DNS level.

I'd rather not use OpenDNS, as I'd like the ability to add and remove the block from the machine itself, as well as use HOSTS for website testing purposes. I already have a few VBS scripts assigned to hotkeys that I custom made in order to do this, and logging in and out of OpenDNS to do this is a pain.

blincoln

Are you using a proxy server with IE7 and not the other browsers? That's the only thing I can think of that would cause behaviour like this. When you use a proxy, you basically hand off DNS resolution to the proxy.

Rohaq

blincoln wrote: »

Are you using a proxy server with IE7 and not the other browsers? That's the only thing I can think of that would cause behaviour like this. When you use a proxy, you basically hand off DNS resolution to the proxy.

No. This is an IE7-only 'feature'. It's not some magical misconfiguration.

Rohaq

Hmm, it looks like IE7 must cache the HOSTS on startup or something: One full reboot, and it's taking effect.

Solved, go forth and close, mod-people.

Ramen Noodle

I never knew about OpenDNS. I think I'll set it up on my network as my mom's really prone to virii and the like.