How do I know when the Spybot hosts list has been updated?

[stevek]

I saw a post at another forum asking how often to use the "add Spybot-S & D hosts list" function under advanced/tools/hosts.

I did some searching here and found this question asked here and answered by MD USA Spybot Fan-Unfortunately,the poster here referred over to a net-integration post where MD USA's answer was and that site is temporarily down.

I did see that MD USA had listed, back in Dec, 2005, quite a few updates in a 6 month period.

I do not know how to tell when these updates are made and when to add.

So I am hoping to find out.

Thanks.

[md usa spybot fan]

I believe that Spybot’s HOSTS file is populated from information in the following file:

• C:\Program Files\Spybot - Search & Destroy\Includes\Domains.sbs

You could look at the timestamp on that file after each Spybot update to see if the file was updated, but that would be a real pain.

Although the HOSTS file and immunization are not directly related, for the last 8 months the HOSTS file has been updated every time the immunization count has changed.

The HOSTS file has been updated 25 times out of the last 29 weekly updates. Since it only takes a few seconds to update the hosts file with Spybot, I do it routinely after each update immediately after I immunize.

[stevek]

Thanks-I will be doing this every time.

I had not been doing the "add" since install and many were added to the list when I recently did it.

[r2baruch]

Just a followup question and I hope you do not mind that I am adding to this thread.
I have a hosts file from MVPS in Windows (XP-SP2-Home). Spot-checking against the SD hosts file seems to show that at least most if not all entries are already in my Windows hosts file. Is there any connection between the Windows hosts file and the SD hosts file?

Does the SD hosts file have anything to do with the Windows hosts file? If I press "add" for the SD hosts file, will it just add any entries that are missing i.e. an incremental update, or will it duplicate all the entries?

I also do not understand the updating of the hosts file by SD, and I would be grateful if you could please explain or provide a pointer to an explanation.
Thanks.

[md usa spybot fan]

Is there any connection between the Windows hosts file and the SD hosts file?

??? No direct connection other than Spybot's HOSTS file (list) can be used to add entries to the system HOSTS file.

Does the SD hosts file have anything to do with the Windows hosts file?

Yes, Spybot's HOSTS file (list) can be used to add entries to the system HOSTS file.

If I press "add" for the SD hosts file, will it just add any entries that are missing i.e. an incremental update, or will it duplicate all the entries?

Spybot appears to logically add its list to the systems HOSTS file so that it does not duplicate entries already present in the systems HOSTS file.

I also do not understand the updating of the hosts file by SD, and I would be grateful if you could please explain or provide a pointer to an explanation.
Thanks.

When you use the "Add Spybot S&D hosts list" button in Spybot, Spybot marks the beginning and the end of the HOSTS file entries it adds with comments as follows:

• # Start of entries inserted by Spybot - Search & Destroy
  127.0.0.1 babe.the-killer.bz
  127.0.0.1 www.babe.the-killer.bz
  127.0.0.1 babe.k-lined.com
  127.0.0.1 www.babe.k-lined.com
  127.0.0.1 did.i-used.cc
  …
  …
  …
  # This list is Copyright 2000-2004 Patrick M. Kolla / Safer Networking Limited
  # End of entries inserted by Spybot - Search & Destroy

When you use the "Remove Spybot S&D hosts list" button in Spybot, it removes the entries between the first and last comments and leaves your other HOSTS files entries intact.