[Ichiban_jay]

Hey all, I just got a call from my friend who's at school right now doing a festival for Orchestra. Apparently, some kid thought it would be funny to mess around with all of the orchestra office's computers. All 4 of the computers are running 10.3-10.4 (depending on the comp, some are newer than the others). When you open the web browser and go to a regular website like google or yahoo, it redirects you to a webpage that says "Danny Likes Men." But if you go to an official school district webpage it works fine.

I think the kids might have messed with host files, but I don't know how to reset it. Boy, a system restore feature sounds nice right now . Well, I know all you masterful minds probably can easily think up of something, All we need is for the browsers to be reset! Thanks in advance!

[_Ω_]

Take a look here

Of particular note look for the posts by Brad - and his link to the instruction page.

[Brad]

Yup!

Blocking sites (and ads) with the hosts file

Man, I never knew just how many times I'd be posting this when I wrote it.

[turtle]

Originally Posted by Brad Yup! Blocking sites (and ads) with the hosts file Man, I never knew just how many times I'd be posting this when I wrote it.

I found this site that builds a list for you. I noticed that there is a difference between the list you have on your site and this list. Being the name is first and IP next, whereas yours has then IP then Name. Does it matter?

Blocking ads is something I love about Firefox and the ad-block extension you can add to it. I wish Safari had the same set up so I could block them as I go. I actually like Safari over Firefox too.

[ast3r3x]

Has anyone checked any other computers? Don't you find it odd that it blocks every website other than the districts?

As far as my school setup was, the internet could go out for us but we could still access the schools website. Doesn't it seem odd he would block everything BUT school websites? Doesn't that seems like it's on the main servers redirecting any traffic, and still allowing it to serve things up?

[Brad]

Originally Posted by turtle2472 I found this site that builds a list for you. I noticed that there is a difference between the list you have on your site and this list. Being the name is first and IP next, whereas yours has then IP then Name. Does it matter?

Yes, it matters. My way is the correct way. That's a really old format that Classic Mac OS used years ago and is wholly incompatible with the way Mac OS X works.

Also, that list has 1700 entries whereas my list has over 4400.

Originally Posted by turtle2472 Blocking ads is something I love about Firefox and the ad-block extension you can add to it. I wish Safari had the same set up so I could block them as I go. I actually like Safari over Firefox too.

PithHelmet for super-advanced multi-featured use.
SafariBlock for basic AdBlock-like use.

See? No need to use yucky old Firefox any more.

[turtle]

Originally Posted by Brad Yes, it matters. My way is the correct way. That's a really old format that Classic Mac OS used years ago and is wholly incompatible with the way Mac OS X works. Also, that list has 1700 entries whereas my list has over 4400. PithHelmet for super-advanced multi-featured use. SafariBlock for basic AdBlock-like use. See? No need to use yucky old Firefox any more.

Thank you for your help on this one. I remember you mentioning PithHelmet once before. I think it was the other thread mentioned in this one too come to think of it.

In fact, I remember asking you about this host thing once before. It was about the time your put this topic up on your website. I must have lost my host file or something. I wonder how that happened?

Anyway, I have installed both "plug-ins" and your hosts file from the other thread. So far it really works for the way I need it too. Thank you again for your help.

Also, I must add that I love Firefox for XP. I won't allow the use of IE on any of my systems. The ones that are allowed online have Firefox installed. And yes, I finally added Firefox to the Mac, but now I only use it to check a site. I might even go so far as to install IE on here again, I practiced the "uninstall method" on your site the first day I unboxed my Mini, to test my web page in all browsers without having to change machines...holding out as long as I can though.

[Brad]

Originally Posted by turtle2472 In fact, I remember asking you about this host thing once before. It was about the time your put this topic up on your website.

Glad to have helped! I'm sorry if I missed your question about this before; that page has been up for at least six months.

Originally Posted by turtle2472 I must have lost my host file or something. I wonder how that happened?

Have you reinstalled Mac OS X? Or maybe upgraded to another major version of Mac OS X? That would probably overwrite it with the original Apple-provided version.

Originally Posted by turtle2472 And yes, I finally added Firefox to the Mac, but now I only use it to check a site. I might even go so far as to install IE on here again, I practiced the "uninstall method" on your site the first day I unboxed my Mini, to test my web page in all browsers without having to change machines...holding out as long as I can though.

Just keep in mind that Internet Explorer for Mac uses a completely different rendering engine than any version of Internet Explorer for Windows. They have a different feature set and a different list of bugs. The engines even have different code names, Tasman for the Mac version and Trident for the Windows version. So, you'll just be compatibility-checking for the 5% IE users of the 5% of overall Mac users. That's, what, a quarter of a percent?

[alcimedes]

You get me something for Safari that works like NoScript and I might use Safari. Until then it's hte suck.

[Brad]

No, YUO are hte Bob Saget!



Wait... I'm confused.

[turtle]

Originally Posted by Brad Glad to have helped! I'm sorry if I missed your question about this before; that page has been up for at least six months.

I can't find where/when I asked though I think it was.... Ah hah!
I found the e-mail. I knew I wasn't losing my mind. I e-mailed you April 26th about this and you sent me a link for PithHelmet. I hadn't installed Tiger yet since it came in right after I sent the e-mail. Details, at least I know I'm not losing my mind.

Have you reinstalled Mac OS X? Or maybe upgraded to another major version of Mac OS X? That would probably overwrite it with the original Apple-provided version.

That would make sense. I I moved up to Tiger right after making this change. I wondered why I have been seeing ads this whole time.

Just keep in mind that Internet Explorer for Mac uses a completely different rendering engine than any version of Internet Explorer for Windows. They have a different feature set and a different list of bugs. The engines even have different code names, Tasman for the Mac version and Trident for the Windows version. So, you'll just be compatibility-checking for the 5% IE users of the 5% of overall Mac users. That's, what, a quarter of a percent?

This is news to me. It is good news actually; it means I don't have to install IE on my Mac!

Thanks again!

[Ichiban_jay]

wow! Thanks for the response, I'll forward this message to my friend.

The school district is very very strange. They REQUIRE the use of Internet Explorer version 4 for all their Macs. Most teachers are downgraded to OS9 when they get their brand spanking new computer, only the few brave teachers (mainly the science and music department) go ahead and install OSX on their comps, but they have to use IE 4 to access school district stuff... Sad but true.

[SonOfSylvanus]

/Aside

Brad, one thing about this hosts file business (I don't really know what I'm talking about, mind) is that it seems to redirect some pages that I choose to navigate to�like sponsored ads listed on a Google results page�and thus causing a "Not Found" error. That's the hosts file at work, no?

Funnily enough, I actually found this page after doing a search for "hosts" to find your "Tech Tips" page...

Reversing your instructions, I am going to restore my hosts file to its original state and see if this allows me to once again swell Google's coffers.

[Brad]

Originally Posted by Ichiban_jay They REQUIRE the use of Internet Explorer version 4 for all their Macs.

That's... utterly baffling.

Originally Posted by SonOfSylvanus Reversing your instructions, I am going to restore my hosts file to its original state and see if this allows me to once again swell Google's coffers.

Yup, it's as simple as removing the relevant lines or commenting them out by putting a '#' character at the start of the line.