Originally Posted by
md usa spybot fan
The fourth level of protection is through the addition of HOSTS file entries. This is a passive protection. The HOSTS file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names and is loaded into memory at startup. The HOSTS file must contain one entry: "127.0.0.1 localhost". The IP address 127.0.0.1 is the local machine. Windows checks the HOSTS file before it queries any DNS (Domain Name System) servers, which enables entries in the HOSTS file to override addresses in the DNS. Adding an entry such as “127.0.0.1 malware.com” to the HOSTS file prevents the access of “malware.com” through IE because any connection attempts are redirected back to the local machine. HOSTS file entries can also be used to block other applications from connecting to the Internet.