by 
Jodie44
ANSWERS: 3
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Well as you know I have very little idea of what I am doing on Vista. I have just ran a search for a Host File and come up with zilch. I am sure there probably is one and Alanpro seems to get on fine with Vista and will probably be able to help more than my puny efforts.
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The Windows Hosts file is a local "directory" of recently and commonly visited sites. It holds the last known IP address of the sites, so that your system can quickly determine and use this information instead of having to apply for it again from the internet service providers Domain Network Server host. Look upon it as the local telephone directory rather than the "google pages" And yes, Vista does have a host file, though only the administrator account can edit it. If you try to edit it without giving the program you're using administrator priviledges the file opens as read-only and changes cannot be saved. For your reference, it's called hosts and is in the /windows/system32/drivers/ect folder
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The whole thing is a bit complex. Yes, Vista has one. It's a list of website addresses. It is primarily used by your browser to gain a little bit of speed, when you go to a site you go to a site's name but the PC wants a number so each time it has to "ask" a dns server that's a directory that matches each number (IP address) to a name. By having the info in the host file it saves having to ask a server that might be very far. You can use the host file to block certain sites as well. An if/when hackers get into your PC they could tamper with it so when you feel sure that you are at your bank's site (because you see it's domain in the browser's address) you might be atthe hacker's site! This takes a very virused up PC but it's possible. Anyway, here's a further read, with some troubleshooting: http://www.ebookorama.com/problem-getting-into-sites.php
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