|
blink
eye of horus



Registered: 03/31/02
Posts: 11,349
Loc: Geographic Location (Stat...
|
Re: how to speed up the shroomery [Re: Dfekt]
#5411493 - 03/17/06 06:53 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
MistaMiner said: What exactly does this addition to the hosts file do then? Im not computer illiterate or anything but i'm not sure how this works
Instead of doing dns resolution, and then connecting to those sites, it loops back, gets denied and continues merrily on it's way.
0.0.0.0 doesn't even loopback, just dies (unknown address)
--------------------
|
OJK
Stranger

Registered: 06/08/03
Posts: 10,629
|
Re: how to speed up the shroomery [Re: Dfekt]
#5411502 - 03/17/06 07:01 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
|
|
Basically, the hosts file is the first layer of DNS resolution, done locally (although it isn't part of the DNS system )
Networks (including the internet) work on a basis of communication using IP addresses. They allow computers to interact and find resources using a single, unified form of addressing. However, IP addresses tend to be kind of hard to remember. People prefer to remember URLs using letters and numbers formed into domain names that make sense to us (e.g. remembering the domain name "www.shroomery.org" is a lot easier for most people then remembering the IP address "69.28.174.162").
The system that translates domain names that make sense to us to IP addresses that make sense to computers is called the Domain Name System (DNS).
Usually, when you enter a domain name into an internet browser, the browser requests a DNS server (a remote computer) to translate the domain name to an IP address so it can locate the information you're looking for.
However, you can use the HOSTS file to hard-wire certain domain names to certain IP addresses (e.g. If I ran a website, but didn't want to pay for a domain name, I could simply use the IP address of my internet connection, and tell everyone I wanted to use the website to edit their hosts file so that www.myhypotheticalwebsite.com was mapped to the IP address of my machine). If a domain name has an entry in the HOSTS file, it will override all other forms of domain name resolution (so even if you map a domain name to an invalid IP, your system will still try to use that IP, it won't query a DNS server for a valid one).
Therefor, you can in effect block access to certain websites or servers by hard-wiring their domain names to fake or invalid IP addresses using your HOSTS file.
The entry
0.0.0.0 google-analytics.com
resolves all attempts to access that analysis server to an invalid IP address, so attempts to reach that server won't load. If there are certain aspects of a website that you don't want to use (i.e traffic analysis, adverts, etc.) and they are hosted on different servers than the main site, you can use the hosts file to prevent those elements loading while still using the site for those elements you do want to use.
You can also use 127.0.0.1, which is called localhost, which is a loopback address to your own local system.
|
OJK
Stranger

Registered: 06/08/03
Posts: 10,629
|
Re: how to speed up the shroomery [Re: blink]
#5411506 - 03/17/06 07:04 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
|
|
Thank you for showing me I have way too much time on my hands
|
|