Why is hosts file not being used?

I have a couple of applications that rely upon the hosts

file in WIN2K.  Through much head banging I have come to

the conclusion that W2K is not using the hosts file (I

have read and investigated the articles on hosts file

corruption with no positive results).  This may be due to

a recent software installation and/or security update that

made a registry change.  The trouble is I don't know which

software and what the change was...



I have searched the entire registry for 'hosts' both on

the problem machine and a machine that doesn't have the

problem.  Neither produced any registry items that seemed

to relate to the problem.



The question is:  Where is the use of the hosts file

configurable?  I assume it will be found in the registry

somewhere but where and what is it supposed to look like

(vs. what it may look like now).



Thanks in advance..

"Rick Mortensen" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:d1fd01c48aa7$0b2d5bb0$a601280a@phx.gbl...

> I have a couple of applications that rely upon the hosts

> file in WIN2K.  Through much head banging I have come to

> the conclusion that W2K is not using the hosts file (I

> have read and investigated the articles on hosts file

> corruption with no positive results).  This may be due to

> a recent software installation and/or security update that

> made a registry change.  The trouble is I don't know which

> software and what the change was...

>

> I have searched the entire registry for 'hosts' both on

> the problem machine and a machine that doesn't have the

> problem.  Neither produced any registry items that seemed

> to relate to the problem.

>

> The question is:  Where is the use of the hosts file

> configurable?  I assume it will be found in the registry

> somewhere but where and what is it supposed to look like

> (vs. what it may look like now).

>

> Thanks in advance..





Check the advanced TCP/IP settings. You can check the field "enable LMHOSTS

lookup".



Vaya.

Rick Mortensen wrote:

> I have a couple of applications that rely upon the hosts

> file in WIN2K.  Through much head banging I have come to

> the conclusion that W2K is not using the hosts file (I

> have read and investigated the articles on hosts file

> corruption with no positive results).  This may be due to

> a recent software installation and/or security update that

> made a registry change.  The trouble is I don't know which

> software and what the change was...

>

> I have searched the entire registry for 'hosts' both on

> the problem machine and a machine that doesn't have the

> problem.  Neither produced any registry items that seemed

> to relate to the problem.

>

> The question is:  Where is the use of the hosts file

> configurable?  I assume it will be found in the registry

> somewhere but where and what is it supposed to look like

> (vs. what it may look like now).

>

> Thanks in advance..



Check in Internet Explorer to see if the machine is set up to use a

proxy server, I seem to recall this can bypass the HOSTS file



--

Steve Parry BA (Hons) MCP MVP



http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/

http://www.gwynfryn.co.uk

Steve,



Thanks for the suggestion but this is outside IE.  Ping

doesn't use IE proxy info and still needs to get an IP for

a hostname (i.e. the hosts file) before it can 'ping'.



Consider the following hosts entry (with a CR after the

last entry):

192.168.1.1     testing



Regardless of the validity of the IP address ping is

supposed to go lookup the IP address if it isn't found in

DNS (not sure of the order for MS.... DNS-hosts or hosts-

DNS) and attempt to 'ping' it.  Here is the response:



C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc>ping testing

Unknown host testing.



Thanks again...

>-----Original Message-----

....Stuff Deleted...

>Check in Internet Explorer to see if the machine is set

up to use a

>proxy server, I seem to recall this can bypass the HOSTS

file

>

>--

>Steve Parry BA (Hons) MCP MVP

>

>http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/

>http://www.gwynfryn.co.uk

>

>

>

>.

>

You can try creating EnableDns here:



HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netbt\Param  eters



see:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000...c_imp_wcug.asp



However, this should not be necessary.  If you have edited/created a hosts

file with notepad, it may have been saved as hosts.txt.  If this is the

case, rename it to remove the file extension.



Doug Sherman

MCSE Win2k/NT4.0, MCSA, MCP+I, MVP



"Rick Mortensen" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:d1fd01c48aa7$0b2d5bb0$a601280a@phx.gbl...

> I have a couple of applications that rely upon the hosts

> file in WIN2K.  Through much head banging I have come to

> the conclusion that W2K is not using the hosts file (I

> have read and investigated the articles on hosts file

> corruption with no positive results).  This may be due to

> a recent software installation and/or security update that

> made a registry change.  The trouble is I don't know which

> software and what the change was...

>

> I have searched the entire registry for 'hosts' both on

> the problem machine and a machine that doesn't have the

> problem.  Neither produced any registry items that seemed

> to relate to the problem.

>

> The question is:  Where is the use of the hosts file

> configurable?  I assume it will be found in the registry

> somewhere but where and what is it supposed to look like

> (vs. what it may look like now).

>

> Thanks in advance..

If you run AdAware on your computer it should display your hosts file and alert you

to changes to the hosts file or it's default location as some spyware or viruses will

modify both. The hosts file must not have an extension to it which users commonly add

when they save it.



http://www.download.com/3000-2094-10...ml?legacy=cnet



The registry key that tells the operating system where the hosts file is located is

shown below from the follwing link.  --- Steve



http://www.microsoft.com/technet/its...g/tcpip2k.mspx



HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

\SYSTEM

\CurrentControlSet

\Services:

\Tcpip

\Parameters



DatabasePath

Key: Tcpip\Parameters



Value Type: REG_EXPAND_SZ-Character string



Valid Range: A valid Windows NT file path



Default:: %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc



Description: This parameter specifies the path to the standard Internet database

files (Hosts, Lmhosts, Network, Protocols, Services). It is used by the Windows

Sockets interface.





"Rick Mortensen" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:d1fd01c48aa7$0b2d5bb0$a601280a@phx.gbl...

>I have a couple of applications that rely upon the hosts

> file in WIN2K.  Through much head banging I have come to

> the conclusion that W2K is not using the hosts file (I

> have read and investigated the articles on hosts file

> corruption with no positive results).  This may be due to

> a recent software installation and/or security update that

> made a registry change.  The trouble is I don't know which

> software and what the change was...

>

> I have searched the entire registry for 'hosts' both on

> the problem machine and a machine that doesn't have the

> problem.  Neither produced any registry items that seemed

> to relate to the problem.

>

> The question is:  Where is the use of the hosts file

> configurable?  I assume it will be found in the registry

> somewhere but where and what is it supposed to look like

> (vs. what it may look like now).

>

> Thanks in advance..

Doug,



I tried this after reading and reading and reading...  I

tried it with the value being set to both 0 and 1.  There

are two interesting things I found reading the article you

list below:



1.  This seems to be related to netbios although at this

level it should not matter since it appears netbios just

happens to use the hosts file too.



2.  The second thing that caught my attention as the very

name suggests it is to turn on and off DNS; not the use of

the hosts file.  The article actually says it controls

both things but it only has two settings so I wonder how

that works....





>-----Original Message-----

>You can try creating EnableDns here:

>

>HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netbt\Para  meters

>

>see:

>http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000...nfo/reskit/en-

us/default.asp?url=/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/en-

us/cnet/cnbc_imp_wcug.asp

>

>However, this should not be necessary.  If you have

edited/created a hosts

>file with notepad, it may have been saved as hosts.txt.

If this is the

>case, rename it to remove the file extension.

>

>Doug Sherman

>MCSE Win2k/NT4.0, MCSA, MCP+I, MVP

>

>"Rick Mortensen" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com>

wrote in message[vbcol=seagreen]

>news:d1fd01c48aa7$0b2d5bb0$a601280a@phx.gbl... 

to[vbcol=seagreen] 

that[vbcol=seagreen] 

which[vbcol=seagreen] 

seemed 

>

>

>.

>

Thank Steve,



I found all this on Microsoft's web (been searching for

two days).  I already have AdAware with all the current

updates; it didn't find anything and yes the hosts file is

named 'hosts'.



My head is getting a flat spot from banging it on the

wall.  The next and most painful move I do my best to

avoid is starting to look like it would take less time

than fixing this...  Format and re-load... Ouch!



Thanks for your help.

Rick

>-----Original Message-----

>If you run AdAware on your computer it should display

your hosts file and alert you

>to changes to the hosts file or it's default location as

some spyware or viruses will

>modify both. The hosts file must not have an extension to

it which users commonly add

>when they save it.

>

>http://www.download.com/3000-2094-10045910.html?

legacy=cnet

>

>The registry key that tells the operating system where

the hosts file is located is

>shown below from the follwing link.  --- Steve

>

>http://www.microsoft.com/technet/its.../network/deplo

y/depovg/tcpip2k.mspx

>

>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

> \SYSTEM

> \CurrentControlSet

> \Services:

>  \Tcpip

>  \Parameters

>

>DatabasePath

>Key: Tcpip\Parameters

>

>Value Type: REG_EXPAND_SZ-Character string

>

>Valid Range: A valid Windows NT file path

>

>Default:: %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc

>

>Description: This parameter specifies the path to the

standard Internet database

>files (Hosts, Lmhosts, Network, Protocols, Services). It

is used by the Windows

>Sockets interface.

>

In news:01aa01c48adf$3e67d9f0$a601280a@phx.gbl,

Rick Mortensen <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> made a post then I

commented below

> Thank Steve,

>

> I found all this on Microsoft's web (been searching for

> two days).  I already have AdAware with all the current

> updates; it didn't find anything and yes the hosts file is

> named 'hosts'.

>

> My head is getting a flat spot from banging it on the

> wall.  The next and most painful move I do my best to

> avoid is starting to look like it would take less time

> than fixing this...  Format and re-load... Ouch!

>

> Thanks for your help.



When you run an ipconfig /displaydns, what do you see?



Then run an ipconfig /flushdns, then run a /displaydns again. What you

*should* see is two entries for localhost, and whatever entries you may have

entered in the hosts file.



Curious, how did you determine that its not using the hosts file? How are

you testing it? Pinging? Web address?



--

Regards,

Ace



Please direct all replies ONLY to the Microsoft public newsgroups

so all can benefit.



This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees

and confers no rights.



Ace Fekay, MCSE 2003 & 2000, MCSA 2003 & 2000, MCSE+I, MCT, MVP

Microsoft Windows MVP - Windows Server - Directory Services



Security Is Like An Onion, It Has Layers

HAM AND EGGS: A day's work for a chicken;

A lifetime commitment for a pig.

--

=================================

Thanks Ace,



ipconfig /displaydns shows everything in the cache; after

clearing it (ipconfig /flushdns) it comes up empty.



Yes I have been testing the hosts file with ping; read

several MS articles regarding a <CR> after the last entry

so I even made sure that was in there.  I replaced the

hosts file with a known working copy from another machine

incase there was some corruption not showing up in notepad.



After not really getting the direction I had hoped from

here (this appears to be really deep) I engaged MS Support

and while it is slow it appears they at least are looking

in the right direction.  I am starting to suspect one of

the files associated with winsock was either replaced or

corrupted somehow.  Everything I check against another

WIN2K PC in the registry appears to be correct...



Feel free to keep posting your thoughts though; you might

beat them to it and while it isn't a race I would like to

get this machine back to health without reloading

Windows...



Thanks



Rick



;>

>When you run an ipconfig /displaydns, what do you see?

>

>Then run an ipconfig /flushdns, then run a /displaydns

again. What you

>*should* see is two entries for localhost, and whatever

entries you may have

>entered in the hosts file.

>

>Curious, how did you determine that its not using the

hosts file? How are

>you testing it? Pinging? Web address?

>

>--

>Regards,

>Ace

>