Host file for safe browsing.

[aussie.damo]

Hi All,

As a long time Windows user, I browse the internet using the security of a custom hosts file. This blocks heaps of cookies, ad servers, parasites and other such things.

I have switched to using a Mac at home and was looking for a similar solution. Any suggestions? I found one but it's a bit old and is no long maintained. Something current would be good.

Of course, I can always just translate my Windows one to Mac format, but that's a bit of effort I'd rather avoid.

Thanks!

Damo

 

[clevin]

there are many site blocking extensions for firefox browser. you can check them out and let me know if they come close to what you want.
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1865/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3145/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3175/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/10/

among them, adblock and ablock+ support "*.doubleclick.net" like rules, you can use regular expressions plus wildcard to match the content to block.

 

[bousozoku]

Typical hosts files can have their contents deposited into the local hosts file by doing some editing but you need root access.

Much easier is using the PhishTank extension with Firefox 2 along with Adblock. That's what I'm doing.

 

[aussie.damo]

there are many site blocking extensions for firefox browser. you can check them out and let me know if they come close to what you want.
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1865/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3145/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3175/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/10/

among them, adblock and ablock+ support "*.doubleclick.net" like rules, you can use regular expressions plus wildcard to match the content to block.

Thanks for your response. I guess what I like about the host file approach is that I don't need to really *do* anything to get this to work. It stops ads and cookies downloading without me having to specify anything. I already use Firefox add-ons to block certain image servers and Flash animations, but the host file approach is so much more than that. For instance, my Vista machine has just FOUR cookies (I know the reason for all of them) on it after almost a month of daily use (compared to the hundreds my ITS provided XP machine has on it). I haven't seen an ad on my Vista machine for ages, which makes the internet so pleasant.

As I said, I can easily add the files to the OS X hosts file, but it's updated fairly regularly so it means more work for me.

Any other suggestions? If not, perhaps some clever scripter our there knows a good way to convert 'n' dump this file like we can in Windows-land.

Damo

 

[clevin]

u only have 4 cookies? oh my, u sure know security. HEHE