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[Moonchild]

But did you restart the computer after "disabling" it?

[New Tobin Paradigm]

If it was up to me, hosts file manipulation would disqualify support status because users who abuse hosts file are OBVIOUSLY either too ignorant to use any help we provide or too hardheaded to not abandon setups that cause issues they have created for them selves no matter what it is.

But that is just my opinion.

[satrow]

Yeah, OBVIOUSLY ...

I've been using hosts files for many years, having suffered for decades due to mediocre infrastructure/distance/aluminium lines/congestion, etc. For me, in combination with selective browser ad/script blocking and a minimal Windows (7)/telemetry/active 3rd party drivers/software, it's the best way to keep a reasonable level of online performance.

I've used HostsMan with no DNS Client for most of the last 5 years and I cannot recall ever switching on/off the hosts file necessitated a reboot to activate.

last 6 months chart.png

[Moonchild]

To the best of my knowledge a reboot is always required because the hosts file will only be read on startup of the networking component (as opposed to lmhosts which is read every time).

There is also the fact that the browser itself WILL cache DNS lookups, so even if you disable the system's caching DNS client, the browser will still use cached results.

@satrow: there are always exceptions to general statements; don't take it personal, please.

[satrow]

I think you need to test HostsMan for yourself when you get a spare 20 minutes or so, as my experience is at odds with much of what's been said here; 2x 90+ and 2+ 40+ day Windows uptime sessions just over the last ~14 months, with multiple HostsMan switches on most days, suggests that it works quite well for my purpose.

[Moonchild]

I concede that it's quite possible my information about the needed reboot is outdated and that it is re-read if it detects a change to the file.
I won't be running hostsman myself; if you say it works then I trust that it does without a reboot.

That leaves my other remark that the browser does cache DNS lookups unless you explicitly disable that in the browser (which you can do for testing , of course, but not recommended to disable it for normal use because it will hammer your DNS server).

[satrow]

I've never considered disabling browser DNS caching, which my setup probably reduces anyway, though I've no idea to what extent.

[Sessh]

I concede that it's quite possible my information about the needed reboot is outdated and that it is re-read if it detects a change to the file.
I won't be running hostsman myself; if you say it works then I trust that it does without a reboot.

I can confirm this also. Sometimes, my hosts file will be blocking something that I want it to allow. All I have to do is edit the hosts file accordingly, save it and reload the page in the browser to get the effect immediately.

[Moonchild]

Thanks, I will update my internal knowledge base about hosts files

[Giraffe]

YouTube's OK with Flash disabled; BBC goes on about Flash ceasing but won't play vids unless it's enabled!