There are a plethora of programs on the Internet today that will block pop-up ads and remove ads from web pages. These utilities prevent unnecessary use of bandwidth, especially helpful on a dial-up connection, as well as making the internet surfing experience more enjoyable. There’s nothing I hate more then a website with dozens of pop-ups, pop-unders and flashy graphics everywhere on the page. Luckily I haven’t seen these problems in months because of my arsenal of anti-ad software. I thought I would share one of these programs for today’s Freeware Frenzy. It is simply called Hoster 3.1, and it allows you to quickly and easily edit your computers hosts file.

What is a hosts file you ask?
First, some background information. Every website has a unique IP address, a set of numbers for the computers to use to identify and communicate with each other, such as 192.168.234.112. As humans, we find it tough to remember unique number sequences for websites, so the familiar www.nameofwebsite.com is much more useful. The Hosts file in every computer can contain a list of IP addresses and their host server’s name, such as 123.45.67.891 www.somesite.com. By default Windows leaves it empty, but where is the fun in that?

So how does it work?
When you are browsing, Windows is busying checking your hosts file before it requests information from a server. If you have one of these servers in your hosts file, Windows can override the address it finds. So as you browse you come upon www.somesite.com. There is an advertisement on that website that is hosted on ad.admarketplace.net. Normally, your computer will request the ad from that server and it will display. But with the power of your hosts file you can turn it away easily. By editing your host file to say the IP for ad.admarketplace.net is 127.0.0.1, you do not download the ad.

I’m sure you’re asking: “What is so special about 127.0.0.1?” It’s just some numbers. There is where you are mistaken. The IP address of your local machine is 127.0.0.1. So mapping ad servers like adclick.com and doubleclick.net onto 127.0.0.1 will prevent access to the sites by redirecting any connection attempts back to the local machine. Obviously your home computer has no advertisements on it, so the web browser will not load anything in the ad’s place. Catching on yet?

Welcome to the advertisement free internet.
You might be wondering how you could know all those host names since there are so many advertisers on the net. Simple, download a host file with over 20,000 entries and you’re ready to browse in style. Not only will the pesky ads not clutter the pages, but your browsing speed improves immensely, especially on dial-up connections. This is where Hoster 3.1 comes in. While you can edit your hosts file manually, Hoster is a tiny app that simplifies and adds to the process.

The installation process is non-existent; the program runs directly from its executable. On the left side is your hosts file and on the right are your options. Very simple to operate. If you have never look at your hosts file before, yours will be very small. To increase your host entries from zero to 20,289 lines, pick up the latest list here: http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

After downloading it, unzip it and remember where it is located. Then in Hoster, select “Replace” and hit “Select File”. Find the downloaded “HOSTS” file and hit OK. You should now see thousands of new entries in your hosts file. And you’re all set. Exit Hoster and enjoy browsing with fewer advertisements. Hoster won’t stop them all unfortunately, but it does make a noticeable difference. Check back with the Hoster website for updated files. If you need to tinker with your hosts file more, Hoster has a Memopad to easily edit any lines you wish. You’ll see that a large button lets you restore Microsoft’s original Hosts file, should anything go awry. When you are finished, make sure to make your hosts file read only, so nobody, including yourself, can accidentally change it.

There you have it. Hosts file editing made simple. Download Hoster here: http://www.funkytoad.com/content/view/13/31/ and enjoy browsing again.