-tictech message:
With regards to the problem using the HOSTS file with SSD computer, perhaps
the DHCP servers are disabling the use of HOSTS. The HOSTS file is a DNS
setting, which the DHCP servers would control.
Joe Weatherby
jmweatherby@seattleschools.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Wes Felty [mailto:wfelty@gte.net]
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2002 8:54 PM
To: tictech@learningspace.org
Subject: tictech: Simple Internet Filtering...the HOSTS file
-tictech message:
There is a system built into Windows that allows a number of Internet
options including faster name resolution, letting you use shortcut names
rather than IP addresses to contact other computers, and to do some
Internet filtering. This involves a file in Windows named "hosts". I've
held off posting this since I'm having trouble getting it working at
Ingraham (it works great at home). I don't know if the problem is related
to Ingraham or everywhere inside Seattleschools WAN. So, I hope a few
people will try it and report if it works at their school site. Here is
how it works.
Computers on the Internet are not identified by names, but by numbers which
we call IP (or TCP/IP) addresses. For example, we call one Web site
"Apple.com". But computers call it "17.254.3.183". It is easier for
humans to work with URL names like "Apple.com", but on the Internet itself,
the address "17.254.3.183" is used. The system that usually converts the
names to IP addresses is usually DNS. This is a set of special internet
servers setup to make these translations and your computer is configured to
know where to find some of these DNS servers. So, in the internet, when
you enter a URL like "apple.com", Windows sends the URL name to the DNS
servers that the computer is configured to use and that DNS server converts
it to its IP address, "17.254.3.183" and sends it on down the wire. Some
computers are not registered in DNS servers and therefore you have to enter
their IP addresses. Or, if you entered in your web browser
"http://17.254.3.183", your connection to Apple.com will happen much
faster since it doesn't have to go through a DNS server.
But, Windows supplies a shortcut. If there is a special file in Windows
called "hosts", it can do the translation before a URL goes out to a DNS
server and send the signal directly down the wire. This file contains URL
names and their IP addresses. If a URL you are using is in this "hosts"
file, nothing is supposed to go to a DNS server. So, this file can make
faster connections, allow you to makeup your own names, and allow you to
redirect a web URL to somewhere else. This is how you get the Internet
filtering. In the Hosts file, you put a URL that you do not want your kids
going to and send it to somewhere else, a more appropriate web site (like
maybe Google.com), to a web server with a "no-no" message, or out to
"la-la" land. For an example of this middle option, go to
"http://IngrahamMWS.ssd.k12.wa.us". You will get redirected to
Altavista.com. At my school, you would be redirected to our Follett
Library Automation Web Site. (That Ingy web page is a unique piece of
programming). Here is an example of a "hosts" file.
127.0.0.1 localhost
10.94.11.2 mws
209.73.164.90 clickagents.com
127.0.0.1 ads.rmbclick.com
10.94.11.2 www.bestweb.net
10.94.11.2 www.my-stats.com
10.94.11.2 www.loveproblem.com
10.94.11.2 media7.fastclick.com
127.0.0.1 pop3.norton.antivirus # Added by Norton AntiVirus for e-Mail
scanning
127.0.0.1 pop3.spa.norton.antivirus # Added by Norton AntiVirus for e-Mail
scanning
This is just a plain text file. The second column is the URL and the first
column is the IP address to direct it to. "10.94.11.2" probably won't work
in any building but Ingraham. That is the IP address of my MicroWebServer
"IngrahamMWS.ssd.k12.wa.us". The IP address "209.73.164.90" is
"www.altavista.com", so anyone trying to go to "clickagents.com" will get
redirected to "www.altavista.com". And, when I want to go to my
MicroWebServer, instead of "IngrahamMWS.ssd.k12.wa.us", I just enter
"mws". The first line should always be as shown and Norton's antivirus
added the last two lines. Some people use the localhost address
"127.0.0.1" like the fourth example. To use a message like I did above,
you need to have a dedicated web server setup to do that.
Now, this file has to be named "hosts" and that is with no extension on the
name. Use a plain text processor like NotePad to create it, but almost all
word processors will try to add an extension to make it "hosts.txt". Your
Windows probably won't show the ".txt" extension even if it is there. One
way to do this is to surround the name "hosts" with quotation marks in the
Save As,,, dialog.
Where do you put this file? You should already have one in "c:\Windows"
for Win 98 and "C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc" in WInNT and Win2000.
So, that's the whole story. Let me know if it does or does NOT work for
you. Maybe if it this works we can get the district to give us a page to
link to for a "no-no" message.
-Wes
Wes Felty <wfelty@gte.net>
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