/etc/hosts file not being used in Snow Leopard

One more wrinkle -> it all worked when I was connected directly to the internet over a wireless USB modem, but didn't work when I was connected to my office LAN (via ethernet, or airport).

I have to add my two cents to this frustrating conundrum. When Snow Leopard first came out I used the old /etc/hosts trick to block a number of ad servers before finding more efficient ways of doing that. When I deleted the no longer needed lines of ad servers from the /etc/hosts file, some websites continued to be blocked (though it appeared that not all did). This is after using dnscache -flushcache and several reboots.

Here's the odd thing: when I use the dscacheutil -q host -a name hostname.com command to test the sites that I can't get to, they resolve to their proper IP. When I test sites I've included in the hosts file, they correctly resolve to 127.0.0.1. So it appears that, while Snow Leopard is correctly using the hosts file, there's something else on my computer that is blocking the websites, across all browsers (so it's system wide). I've ruled out my router (since other computers on the network can access these same sites), IPv6 (turned it off), and any adblocking software.

I searched a little on Google and seem to be encountering a number of people who have similar issues within Snow Leopard. Any thoughts?

bruddalarry wrote:
I have to add my two cents to this frustrating conundrum. When Snow Leopard first came out I used the old /etc/hosts trick to block a number of ad servers before finding more efficient ways of doing that.

What are the more efficient ways?

Tex-Twil wrote:

$ dscacheutil -q host -a name facebook.com
name: facebook.com
ip_address: 127.0.0.1

When I open FF or Safari and type facebook.com it works

Just as a clarification, to see the "blocking" you have to explicitly enter "http://facebook.com" into the URL bar.

If you just enter "facebook.com" most browsers will then do a Google search for the site and then convert it accordingly rather than just prefix the address you enter with "http://."

So for example, if I watch Firefox closely, if I enter "facebook.com" in the URL bar, it will look up the URL and will load "http://www.facebook.com", and since "www.facebook.com" is a different host, it will not be blocked.

Hi Jere,

I have the exact same issue!..

Did your ever find out what it was? I have been searching for hours.

Just thought I would chime in with a quick little tidbit. After you are done editing the host file, don't do an NSLOOKUP or PING, do a tracert. (Traceroute) It will actually get the IP from the host file.

There is another little trap into which I fall again and again:

If your entry to /etc/hosts is the last line, make sure it ends
with a newline!!! All other hints above apply, too, but without
the line ending the entry will not be found.

cheers - chris

hi,

my hosts file looks like this:

##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost
fe80::1%lo0 localhost
127.0.0.1:8111 ci

(new line at the end, tab as a separator)

after flushing the DNS (sudo dscacheutil -flushcache) and 'traceroute ci' I get 'unknown host ci' message. am I missing something?

Message was edited by: vanjan

vanjan wrote:
##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost
fe80::1%lo0 localhost
127.0.0.1:8111 ci

(new line at the end, tab as a separator)

I think you need to change "127.0.0.1:8111 ci" to "127.0.0.1 ci"