What is the host file for?

A file host is a small but extremely important document, which by default takes up only 1 KB of disk space. Its appearance was the result of the desire of the developers of shell programs to improve the performance of the PC. Considering this file and its operating principle, you can conduct a better understanding of the analogy using a notebook.

So, what is a host file? Each computer connected to the Internet connects using a simple algorithm. The user's access to any of the sites is checked by the browser for finding the ip address of this resource in the host file. There are two possible variants of the development of the event.

1. If such an address is not found, then the computer makes a corresponding request from the provider and only after it receives it opens the selected Internet resource. This takes time.

2. If the host file contains the specified ip-address, the browser immediately opens the necessary site, which significantly speeds up the work, because the above procedure is skipped.

Obviously, storing records about ip-addresses of the most visited sites is very useful, but there is one "but" here. Quite often the host file stores information about advertising and just random unnecessary sites. In addition, it is a potential victim for the actions of some viruses, which usually redirect users from social networking sites to special phishing resources in order to lure money from the user.

Therefore, it is very important to periodically check and clear the contents of this file. But how to find a host? It should be noted immediately that the display mode of hidden files is not useful, but you can find it at: C: \ WINDOWS \ system32 \ drivers \ etc. To access its contents, you must right-click on the file icon and use "open with", where you should select one of the standard Windows programs - Notepad.

Once you have access to the file, you need to know how to clean the host to prevent unnecessary consumption of traffic or to protect your computer from the actions of malicious programs. Having opened it, you should pay special attention to the records that are contained after "127.0.0.1 localhost". If this entry is not visible, you must move down with the slider on the right. All ip-addresses located below the specified one should be subjected to careful analysis. It should be noted immediately that there is nothing in the original host file below the entry "127.0.0.1 localhost".

Sometimes when opening or editing there are some difficulties. The most common are when a file can not be opened or saved. There are two ways to solve this situation.

1. Open, using administrator rights.

2. Download or copy the original file and replace it with one that is located on the user's computer.

The described solutions may not help if the virus program remains in the system, as it will independently check and change the contents of the host on its own. Therefore, it must first be identified and neutralized, and then checked and corrected the contents of the file again.

Applying these knowledge, web surfing will become faster and safer.