Questions on Immunize and HOSTS file

[Reggie Stry]

I've noticed both my Firefox and IE 6 browsers hanging when visiting several favorite sites, and I suspected the problem was the latest beta2 install of Spybot S&D.

Sure enough, when I checked my HOSTS file, it was bigger than the backup I made when I updated my usual HOSTS file from MVPS.org. It went from 640 kb to 820 kb in size. Even with my DNS service disabled, this large a HOSTS file can cause a drag on a CPU when the browsers have to interact with the registry domain that contain all these url lookups.

I've tried using Spybot S&D tools to remove the Spybot HOSTS file adds and the program locked. Now I'm just going to download the latest MVPS.org file again and load it, and try to change the settings area of Spybot so that the Spybot list isn't added.

I have several questions:

1) Shouldn't the MVPS.org HOSTS file be enough, considering that I:

a) Have Zone Alarm Pro set to high security, blocking embedded objects, etc.
b) mainly use Firefox and try only to visit Siteadvisor's green check sites.
c) have your Immunize feature along with Spyware Blaster loaded

2) Am I correct in stating that your Immunize feature is separate from your HOSTS adds in that the Immunize url's are added to just the restricted area of Internet Explorer?

[md usa spybot fan]

Reggie Stry:


2) Am I correct in stating that your Immunize feature is separate from your HOSTS adds in that the Immunize url's are added to just the restricted area of Internet Explorer?
No.

In Spybot 1.5 immunization:
Only immunization items listed as ... (Domains) are adding registry entries to place sites in the restricted zone.
In Spybot 1.5 immunization:
Items listed as "... (Cookies)" are adding registry entries to block the storing of cookies from certain sites.
Items listed as "... (IPs)" are adding registry entries to block the download/execution of ActiveX processes.
The immunization item listed as "Global (Hosts)" is adding entries to the Hosts file.

[Reggie Stry]

The immunization item listed as "Global (Hosts)" is adding entries to the Hosts file.[/list]


Thanks for the info. I unchecked the Global Hosts additions as the additional 200kb was causing a slowdown in web browsing.
Some of the approximately 7,800 url's must be duplicates anyway.

[jrtweeter]

I just figured out what was keeping immunize from updating my global hosts file. Another application had hosts locked so spybot or anything else could not modify this file. In my case I had an advanced setting in ZoneAlarm turned on to lock the hosts file. :oops: Once I cleared the lock, immunize worked fine.

[md usa spybot fan]

If you do not want to use all of the items in the immunization process, I suggest that you do not immunize during installation. Wait until Spybot has been installed and updated. Then go into Spybot > Immunize and uncheck the items that you do not want such as "Global (Hosts)" before immunizing.

In Spybot 1.5 there is separate immunization for Firefox that does not involve the Hosts file.

The immunization process for IE adds entries to the system registry to block the storing of cookies from certain sites, places certain sites to the restricted sites zone and blocks the download/execution of selected ActiveX processes. In Spybot 1.4 there was no breakdown by the type of immunization. In Spybot 1.5 IE immunization is broken down by type as follows:
Items listed as "... (Cookies)" block the storing of cookies from certain sites.
Items listed as "... (Domains)" and "... (IPs)" add sites to the restricted sites zone. The "... (Domains)" entries are added by domain name.
The "... (IPs)" entries are add by IP Address.
Items listed as "... (Plugins)" block the download/execution of ActiveX processes.