Hosts Block?

Hey... I'm using BitDefender Total Security 2008 and I'm 90% sure it is the reason why my hosts file (windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts) file is "blocked". It is turned into a system file and also has a hosts.bak... Because of the bak I am assuming it was bitdefender xD (since its my only firewall/antivirus).

Anyway, I was wondering how I can turn that off and unblock my hosts file?

-- Thanks for your time .

Any other antispyware, like spybot or others?

Hello sumguy,

BitDefender doesn't block the hosts file or renames it to .bak. What I am thinking about is that you are using the modified mvps hosts file that you can download here. By each update the old hosts file is being renamed to hosts.bak. Spywareblaster modifies also the hosts file or if you used host###pert to restore the default value of the hosts file renames the old hosts file also to .bak. You can easily protect your hosts file by making it read-only by right clicking on it and choose for properties.

Best regards

Niels

Hello sumguy,

Infact you didn't need to change it to a system file. Even if you changed it to open it with wordpad windows will still uses the hosts file that is located in the system32/drivers/etc directory.

You can see the content of the hosts file in BitDefender to be able to see that information first open BitDefender by right clicking on the red BitDefender icon near the system clock press on open advanced settings,go to the privacy control section press on system information tab now when you press on the +-icon of the different sections you can expand that. To see to which ip-address a certain hosts entry directs to just leftclick on the item. So you can verify if your hosts file is being modified if you see websites of update servers of security software or to security websites.If you double click on one of the entries the hosts file will also open. Glad that I could help you. You are welcome.

Best regards

Niels