Can't immunize Global [Hosts]

[Tenacious P]

Hi There I'm new to the site so appologies if this thread is in the wrong place.

I have 98 Global [Hosts] that Spybot won't immunize, I've read threads from people with the same problem & have tried a number of solutions that have been suggested by people but none have worked.

I don't have Zonealarm but am running with WinXP home ed, Firefox 3 & have AVG 7.5 installed. My knowledge of the inner workings of my computer are pretty limited I'm afraid so if anyone can help can they keep explanations easy to understand please?

Thanks in advance.

[spybotsandra]

Hello,

So you are runing Spybot - Search & Destroy version 1.6?

Some users have reported that they use SpySweeper or SpywareBlaster and shutting them down solves the problem. ZoneAlarm might also block the global hosts. If you go to Firewall in ZoneAlarm on the left and then the main tab in the upper right then go down to the advance button and click on it you will see under General setting "Lock Hosts file".

Further please try the following:
Open Spybot > Immunize > under Windows uncheck Global (Hosts). Go into Spybot > Mode > Advanced Mode > Tools > Hosts file > and then click on the "Add Spybot S&D hosts list" button. Go back into Spybot > Immunize

The problem that not all global host entries have been immunized has also been discussed in our forum:
http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=18122&highlight=immunize+global
http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=19314&highlight=immunize+global
http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=17913&highlight=immunize+global

Best regards
Sandra
Team Spybot

[Tenacious P]

Hi.

Thanks for the response. Yes I do have S&D version 1.6 and SpywareBlaster. I have had both installed for a long time now & had no problems up til now. I have already tried the procedure you suggested & have had no luck.

Also as I said before I do not have ZoneAlarm but do have AVG 7.5 this also has been installed with the others for over 2 years & presented no problems til now.

I also tried disabling SpywareBlaster before immunization but this also has not worked. None of the other solutions in the links you provided have worked either.

As an additional thought. I have just upgraded Firefox to version 3 & have only noticed this problem since then. Could this have anything to with it & if so is there a solution to it?

[Greyfox]

Tenacious P,

Are you trying to immunise from a user account or from an admin account?
You can try right clicking on the Spybot desktop icon and click Run as then select an admin account instead of just clicking on the icon to start Spybot, then try to immunise again.

Failing that try to undo the immunisation. If undo doesn't remove any of the present immunisation from the host file, then the host file is being locked by something external to Spybot, and it's a matter of finding out what is locking it. As far as I am aware Firefox 3 is not able to lock the host file.

[Tenacious P]

Ok. I tried the undo option & that didn't work. When I try the other solution you suggested spybot didn't give me an option to select an admin account. It just came up with my username.

How do I select an admin account?

[Greyfox]

Ok. I tried the undo option & that didn't work. When I try the other solution you suggested spybot didn't give me an option to select an admin account. It just came up with my username.

How do I select an admin account?

Sorry if I have confused you - that suggestion was intended IF you were operating from a user account rather than an Admin Account. From your response I would say you probably only have the one account, and that would then by default be the administrator account, so you can forget that suggestion.

If the undo didn't remove the existing entries in the hosts file then the file is locked by some other software. My guess is that it might be SpywareBlaster, and just "disabling" it may not be sufficient, however I don't use that program and so I don't know what options it has.

Did you try the suggestion in http://forums.spybot.info/showpost.php?p=120790&postcount=2
This was in one of the threads spybotsandra pointed you to?

[Tenacious P]

Yep tried that already. I've also tried disabling SpywareBlaster & it still didn't immunize.

What other type of software might be blocking it? Is it only likely to be anti-virus/protection programs or can it be anything?

Thanks for trying to help.

[fixrman]

Try disabling Spybot locks within IE from the Advanced tab > IE Tweaks. Then go to Hosts and select Add Spybot Hosts List and see if your Global Hosts updates and shows zero. One thing I noticed is that whilst this was going through the Immunisation procedure, the little resident dude was doing a four-step around the Resident Icon. Don't recall seeing that before.

After you succeed at that, go back to IE tweaks and reset things to the way they were. If you want, you can try one thing at a time to see what really works, but being impetuous as I am I decided to go for broke. <G>

You might have to run Immunisation twice. I did.

[Tenacious P]

Thanks for helping

I checked that & the IE hosts lock was already disabled. I tried enabling it & then running immunize but that just disabled it again.

I'm not having much luck here.

[Greyfox]

Thanks for helping

I checked that & the IE hosts lock was already disabled. I tried enabling it & then running immunize but that just disabled it again.

I'm not having much luck here.

With the Spybot lock hosts file disabled (unticked), right click on the Hosts file itself, and look at the properties. It should NOT be read only. If it is, then something other than Spybot is locking it. Normally this would be Firewall, antispyware, or security suite software, perhaps less likely in discrete AV software. Maybe in tune up or tweak software.

[Tenacious P]

With the Spybot lock hosts file disabled (unticked), right click on the Hosts file itself, and look at the properties. It should NOT be read only. If it is, then something other than Spybot is locking it. Normally this would be Firewall, antispyware, or security suite software, perhaps less likely in discrete AV software. Maybe in tune up or tweak software.


Ok. I've done that & read only is NOT ticked. So what do I do now? Is there anything else I can do to immunize these stupid Hosts?

I appreciate all the help you're all offering. It's very frustrating seeing these other threads where people have said "yeah that did it, thanks" & none of it is working for me :sad:

[Greyfox]

Ok. I've done that & read only is NOT ticked.

I have attached a copy of a hosts file, which has had all of the immunisations removed. Please goto c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc and rename your existing hosts file to oldhosts, then copy the attached hosts file into that location.

If you can do that, then run another immunisation and let us know whether that has removed the problem.

Edit: Had a problem uploading the attachment - have renamed it Hosts.txt. Please rename it back to hosts when you have copied it into the location above

[Tenacious P]

Ok. When I try to rename the hosts file it comes up with an error message saying "cannot rename hosts: It is being used by another person or program. Close any programs that might be using the file & try again".

Is there a way I can identify what program might be using it as that may be what my problem is?

[Tenacious P]

Update.

I decided to uninstall SpywareBlaster & then ran immunize once more, this had no effect on the 94 Global Hosts that wouldn't immunize. So I reinstalled SpywareBlaster & did a complete reboot of my system. When I ran immunize on Spybot it cleaned the lot!

I have no idea how or why but I'm not going to complain.

Thank you to everyone who offered their advice & help. :)